‘I’ve handled trouble on the streets after an All Blacks defeat, I know the pressure’
WAYNE Pivac insists he’s equipped to handle the pressure of being Wales coach after taking over from Warren Gatland.
He was open and engaging during an interview after naming the first squad of his reign, for the uncapped match with the Barbarians at the Principality Stadium on November 30.
It included exciting young uncapped back-rowers Taine Basham and Shane Lewis-Hughes. The Wales Under-20 internationals are among five uncapped players named by the former Scarlets boss in his 35-strong party for the meeting with the Gatland-coached Baa-Baas.
Pivac has been able to call on 22 players who featured for semi-finalists Wales in the recent Rugby World Cup, with the notable exception being skipper Alun Wyn Jones.
The game isn’t a capped international but Basham, 20, Lewis-Hughes, 22, Willis Halaholo, Ashton Hewitt and Johnny McNicholl will all be hoping to pull on the red national jersey for the first time a week on Saturday.
Blues centre Halaholo and Scarlets full-back/wing McNicholl have only recently qualified to wear the three feathers, the New Zealanders having completed the required three-year residency.
Pivac has also handed Hewitt a chance to push for international honours after a wretched couple of seasons for the Dragons wing on the injury front.
The New Zealander isn’t fazed at the prospect of following a regime which delivered four Six Nations titles and two World Cup semi-finals.
He said: “Remember, I was once a supporter in New Zealand of the All Blacks.
“When they lost, Radio Sport would go crazy until the next time they played and they won. Every world class player was a chump, not a champ, and the coach would go.
“So I grew up in a pretty hostile environment where winning was everything.
“I was in the police for a period of that time too, so I saw the real life result of bad performances, a team not winning, and it had a knock-on effect into the community.”
Historical figures in New Zealand have highlighted a spike in domestic violence in the hours following All Blacks losses.
Pivac confided: “I dealt with some of that at 3am on a Sunday. I understand it [pressure], I know the reasons for it, and it goes with the territory. It’s not something we’ll shy away from.
“To be honest, that’s part of the excitement of it – you can make a difference to people’s lives for a period of time, albeit a couple of days or a week, or what it may be.”
Pivac, who guided the Scarlets to Guinness PRO12 final glory in stunning style two years ago, smiled when it was put to him Gatland had said: “It would break my heart if Wales went back into the doldrums”.
He responded: “The fact that we think we can make some improvements means we’re heading in the right direction.
“We have been very positive. No one wants the team to go backwards, and I’m probably top of that list.
“We know the success the team has had, we want to continue that success and build on it.
“Warren’s done things a certain way and I understand why he’s done them, the method in his madness is there for all to see, I think.
“We don’t always have the biggest pool of players to pick from, and you’ve got to look at what you believe your strengths are at a given time and play to your strengths.
“Warren’s done that and had some great results, and we’re going to try and build on the platform he’s left, and he’s left a pretty good platform to launch from.
“The expectation is we’ll perform straight away, so that’s the challenge for us, seeing how quickly we get up to speed.
“Evolving the attack, which is what we talked about today, will be an ongoing thing.
“We won’t want to show our hand from day one, it’s a process that works towards being successful at the 2023 World Cup, bearing in mind we have to be as successful as we can along the way.
“For me personally, and I think I speak for most coaches in this, you are in the game because you believe in your own ability and what you can bring to the table, and you love a challenge.
“Ultimately we are all old players aren’t we and every time you take the field you want to get one over your opponent.
“In this case we want to get performances on the board that, one, we are proud of and, two, have a result at the end of the day.
“We will be doing everything we can to emulate what Warren has done in terms of results and evolve our game at the same time.
“It’s an exciting time for any coach no matter what the level when you come into any role.
“Change is a good thing I find. You meet a new staff, outside of the team environment, as it’s a big team.
“It’s not just our management team and players, it’s the support staff around the outside too.
“So it’s getting around and talking to them, getting a feel for what it means to the people in the office, the people in the NCE (National Centre of Excellence) and the internal staff.
“Everyone has a pretty good vibe around them. It’s been a successful time under Warren and everyone is waiting to see what changes may or may not take place. For me that’s not a bad thing.”