Wales see Six Nations defence end but Pivac aims to stop Les Bleus

Wayne Pivac insists Wales have “plenty to play for” despite seeing their hopes of a successful Guinness Six Nations title defence effectively ended.

Wales’ 23-19 defeat against England at Twickenham left them nine points off the pace set by unbeaten leaders France.

Les Bleus, on the scent of a first Grand Slam for 12 years, need victory over Wales and England to complete a clean sweep.

“We have two home games left,” head coach Pivac said.

“We would like to finish strongly, especially at home. What better place than to try and pick up a result against France, who are playing so well at the moment?

“There is plenty to play for. We’ve had two fantastic matches over the last couple of Six Nations against France.”

Eddie Jones insisted any preferential treatment from referee Mike Adamson evened the score after events in Cardiff a year earlier.

Pivac questioned whether Alex Dombrandt’s second-half try that propelled England into a 17-0 lead should have stood because of a line-out infringement.

But Jones referenced England conceding two hotly-disputed tries at the Principality Stadium last year when explaining why he felt no sympathy for the champions.

“We took 14 points last year in a Six Nations game where they allowed a play where the ball wasn’t alive and then a blatant knock-on,” Jones said.

“We’re not going to complain about it, just as we didn’t complain last year when we didn’t get the rub of the green.”

● Andy Farrell expects World Rugby to review its rules after Ireland benefited from a “weird” law en route to blitzing depleted Italy 57-6.

The unfortunate Azzurri battled on two men down for threequarters of yesterday’s match in Dublin after substitute Hame Faiva was dismissed having just replaced fellow hooker Gianmarco Lucchesi due to injury.

Those premature departures led to uncontested scrums and necessitated the removal of a second Italian player, with number eight Toa Halafihi the man sacrificed.

Ireland took advantage by running in nine tries to bounce back from defeat to France a fortnight ago.

Italy left the Aviva Stadium field with just 12 men due to Braam Steyn being sin-binned for the final five minutes, leaving Ireland head coach Farrell to reflect on a strange afternoon.

“It’s just weird (the law). We understand why the rule was brought in but at the same time I suppose, in situations like that, occasions like that, it’ll bring the rule back to everyone’s attention and they’ll look at it.”

Marcus Smith evades the Welsh defence.