Davies: Pivac can’t complain if he is sacked after humiliating Wales defeat

JONATHAN Davies launched into an impassioned tirade over Wales’s “woeful” attack and claimed it would be “justifiable” to sack head coach Wayne Pivac after losing to Italy.

Wales ended their Six Nations campaign with a whimper as they lost 22-21 to the Azzurri in the Welsh capital on Saturday, meaning they finished fifth in the final standings with just the solitary win to their name.

That came against Scotland on the second weekend of the championship, but was then followed by defeats to England, France and the Italians.

It has led to some calling for Pivac’s head in the aftermath of the defeat, and former Wales fly-half Davies believes the WRU would be within their rights to do it after what he described as an “absolutely dreadful” performance.

“If you lose to Italy, it’s sackable,” Davies said on BBC’s Scrum V. “If they want to get rid of him, they can, it’s justifiable to do it.

“The performance was absolutely dreadful. The Italians were the better team.

“Again, our attack was absolutely woeful. I’ve no idea what they’re trying to do. The only tip-off in the game was Faletau to Watkin and we scored.

“Forwards don’t look capable of getting over the gain line. When you can’t do that it’s difficult to do anything.

“We have to look deeper than that. If Wyn Jones had scored that try or Josh Adams had made that tackle... we are papering over cracks again. It’s far deeper than that.

“The under-20s lost, the regions got smashed in South Africa and I don’t think the best players are playing for Wales at the moment and there’s no-one coming through. “And in the summer we go to South Africa.” The Trimsaran hero added: “Ultimately, Italy and France had the same tactic; kick the ball to Wales and let them attack us. Because they knew Wales’s attack wouldn’t break them down.

“We don’t counter-attack. I don’t think we’ve got the back row right, I don’t think we’ve got the midfield right and all of a sudden we change the back three as well.

“There’s no consistency.”