Relieved Pivac: That was a rollercoaster . . . and a half

WAYNE PIVAC admitted that Wales had been on an “emotional rollercoaster” before reaching their destination and being crowned Six Nations champions.

And the head coach also recounted a “sickening feeling” of seeing his side’s Grand Slam hopes being ended by France in the dying seconds of a pulsating Paris encounter.

It meant Les Bleus had a chance of denying Wales the title on Friday, but Wales’ sixth championship was confirmed after Scotland beat the French.

Pivac said: “It was an emotional rollercoaster, the last seven days.

“We put in by far our best performance against the French, and I thought we had done enough midway through the second half to have won.

“To lose it in the last play of the game was devastating. The boys really wanted that Grand

Slam, so we had the lows of not achieving that.

“It took me until Wednesday or Thursday to want to come out of the house, purely from the point of view that it was a sickening feeling for the players who worked so hard.

“We wanted that Grand

Slam for so many reasons – for the hard the work that went in, the style of rugby we played, and to win that way would have been fantastic, but we really wanted to do it for the people of Wales.” Their latest success (right) came after a poor 2020 when they won just three Test matches.

It was Pivac’s first year at the helm and Six Nations silverware underlines how impressively things have been turned around.

He added: “It’s not about me, it’s about the team. I know the public hurt when we don’t win a Test match, just like how we hurt. But moments like this make up for the bad times.”