Pivac plunges to Wales nadir
Georgia earn historic Cardiff victory
THE stormclouds of ruin are encircling Wayne Pivac after he became the first Wales coach to lose a Test match against Georgia.
This was abysmal by Wales, arguably their worst performance since the early 1990s when it was nothing out of the ordinary to see them get beaten at home against minnows such as Western Samoa and Canada. It looked as if they had hit rock bottom when they fell on their own patch against Italy in the Six Nations but make no bones about it, this was Wales’ nadir under Pivac.
Luka Matkava may have been a nobody when the game kicked off at 1pm on Saturday but come fulltime his name will forever go down in Welsh rugby infamy. For it was the 20-year-old who stepped up to smash over a difficult penalty two minutes from time after Georgia had annihilated the home side’s scrum.
What makes this result all the more surprising is that Wales were cruising with a 12-3 lead at the interval courtesy of two well-taken tries from Ospreys openside Jac Morgan, while Josh Adams also had a try ruled out.
But they imploded after the interval with a well-taken touchdown from Alexander Todua, which came as a result of a neat cross-kick from Tedo Abzhandadze, along with Matkava’s late strike. Wales could have sealed this win five minutes from time when Morgan appeared to have claimed a hat-trick, but the try was disallowed by the TV match official who spotted Taulupe Faletau knocking the ball forward in the lead-up.
Large swathes of the Welsh rugby public are calling for Pivac to be removed as head coach, but the New Zealander is confident he is the right man to lead them to the Rugby World Cup which starts in 10 months’ time.
‘You’ve seen a lot of results at the moment that are going against the formbook, and our result is one of those,’ said Pivac when asked about his future. ‘Where you are going with that question you probably want to ask somebody else, but I’ll be here rolling the sleeves up starting first thing in the morning like all the other coaches in the group.
‘We will come together Sunday night and we’ll formulate a plan for the week.
‘We are here to do a job, we are totally focussed on building towards the World Cup. This is clearly a setback, and we are not proud of that result.
‘It is not a nice place to be. Seven days is a long time in rugby, and we will look at it all, including pulling the game to bits.
‘We have to make sure we get the performance we are all happy with and proud of in seven days’ time.’
Wales have lost eight out of 11 Test matches this year, and despite winning the Six Nations in 2021, have declined since Warren Gatland vacated his post in 2019.
When asked what he would say to Welsh rugby fans following this wretched defeat, captain Justin Tipuric cut a dejected figure.
‘It’s something they’re probably used to unfortunately in the last few years in Welsh rugby, up and down,’ he said. ‘You have to give Georgia credit.
‘We’ve had some bad results, even when Gats (Gatland) was here. We lost to Samoa when we were hot favourites for that game.
‘It’s tough to be the first Welsh team to lose to Georgia. Unfortunately, you have those tough days in your career, and now it is all about how we react.’
The Georgian changing room was the complete opposite to Wales with scenes of utter joy after the final whistle. They have been trying to force their way into the Six Nations for many years and their captain Merab Sharikadze urged World Rugby to take note.
‘Hopefully, the heads of rugby will have watched this game,’ said Sharikadze. ‘It would be unfair if they pretended this didn’t happen.
‘Hopefully, they will make some moves. Sometimes something is so obvious that you can’t run away from it.
‘We’ve beaten Wales in Wales so it’s so obvious. They can’t pretend they haven’t seen this.’