Pivac: Wales display ‘unacceptable’ in shock loss

WAYNE Pivac criticised Wales’ “unacceptable performance” as Italy ended a 36-game Six Nations losing streak by winning 22-21 in Cardiff.

Edoardo Padovani’s last-minute try gave Italy a sensational victory, their first ever on Welsh soil.

But while Italy savoured a first Six Nations success since 2015, the inquest in Wales is likely to be long and hard for last year’s champions.

Wales will finish the 2022 tournament down in fifth place, with their only victory coming against Scotland.

“It’s very disappointing,” said a shell-shocked Pivac. “Lots has happened since last year, well-documented.

“We came with a goal of giving ourselves an opportunity to finish third, which would have been a superb effort by the boys.

“After round one (when Wales were beaten 29-7 by Ireland in Dublin) we were building each week. But this was an unacceptable performance, which we must not let happen again.”

Pivac had made seven changes to the side which had pushed France all

that’s been the way, leading to claims of arrogance and underestimating Italy in some quarters.

On a day when the returning Alun Wyn Jones won his 150th cap and Dan Biggar became the seventh Welshman to win his 100th, Pivac’s men floundered in the Principality Stadium.

Tries from Owen Watkin, Dewi Lake and Josh Adams looked to have got Wales over the line as a 21-15 lead was claimed in the final 12 minutes only for Italy to nick victory late on.

Pivac skirted around Biggar’s postmatch assertion in a TV interview that this was “probably the last chance for a lot of players”, preferring instead to focus on the summer test awaiting in South Africa and the 2023 World Cup in France 18 months from now.

“We’re not going to lose focus in terms of what the big goal and the big picture is. It’s a bitter pill to swallow for everybody, but we have to learn from this,” Pivac said.

“I’m hoping we take a step forward in the summer against the world champions in their backyard, which is going to be a big ask, with an idea of how far we are from them just over 12 months out from the World Cup.”