WE HAVE LEARNED A LOT FROM SUMMER MATCHES
WALES suffered a Test series defeat at the hands of Argentina as they were beaten 33-11 by a strong Pumas side in Cardiff. Here’s what coach Wayne Pivac had to say.
QUESTION: WHAT IS YOUR REACTION TO THAT?
Wayne Pivac: Yeah, I’m still cooling down actually. I’ve just been pitchside and it’s 46 degrees down there, I couldn’t believe it actually. She was a warm one.
Obviously we didn’t play well in those conditions. There were too many unforced errors – dropped balls and inaccurate passing – in the second half, which was particularly disappointing.
They were extremely difficult conditions but both sides had to play in it.
Q: TO WHAT EXTENT DID THOSE CONDITIONS IMPACT THE PERFORMANCE, I GUESS YOU WOULD WANT BETTER SKILL SETS?
WP: A lot of it, as you would have seen, was unforced. You’ve got a player throwing a pass behind three team-mates that were beside him.
That’s a good metre in the wrong direction. A lot of that, talking to the boys, was to do with the sweat on the ball.
But, as I said, both teams had to deal with it
We’ve learned a hell of a lot about the players and they’ve learned a hell of a lot this month. Some of them have learned what is required at this level and, at the end of the day, that’s a very good Argentina side.
They’re very powerful up front and they delivered in the areas that we expected them to try and deliver. We weren’t able to repel them.
It wasn’t just our attack breaking down but in defence we didn’t win enough collisions. We didn’t come off the line enough or put in enough big shots. We were always going to come second, unfortunately. But there are some great learnings and we’re now going to have a break after a long season.
Q: YOU SEEMED A LITTLE PASSIVE IN DEFENCE – WAS TIREDNESS AFTER A LONG SEASON THE REASON FOR THAT?
WP: There were periods last week when we made errors, turned the ball over, gave away silly penalties but we were able to claw it back.
This week, it was a lot hotter and our fellas just didn’t handle that as well as we would have liked.
They were extreme conditions, I can tell you. I’ve just walked out on the pitch for a cap presentation and I’m dripping in sweat.
It was very difficult but there are some players that are very disappointed in the changing room, as you would expect.
Having some individual conversations, it’s about what they take out of this match, as individuals and collectively as a group.
Each player will get a set of workons to take away with them in their off-season, to work on in preparation for the coming season.
Q: HOW DO YOU REFLECT ON THE LAST YEAR, CAN YOU GIVE IT A MARK OUT OF 10?
WP: You guys will probably mark it out of 10. Internally, we’re very happy.
We’re happy that 18 or 19 players have been exposed at this level of the game in about as many months.
Even though that will hurt at times and players can get exposed at this level, they’ll be better for it in the future. That’s going to help with our depth and, as you saw today, our depth was tested.
We had about 27 players unavailable. The autumn and this series has been what we needed in terms of the development phase.
Everyone was pretty pleased with the competition phase – the Six Nations – because we were able to get a result.
Now we have to enjoy a break – as management and players – and then look forward to what will be a very challenging autumn series.
We look forward to that because it’ll be a big test for us. We haven’t played southern hemisphere opposition outside of Argentina for some time.
Q: DID YOU LEARN THAT SOME PLAYERS ARE READY AND SOME PLAYERS AREN’T?
WP: Yeah, and that’s what the whole exercise is about. When you bring in a raft of new players, they’re not going to just hit the ground running against a team like Argentina, who caused Australia and New Zealand problems.
They are a very good side that are improving. To have the opportunity to play a quality side like that ... we learned a lot.
Some players put their hand up and did very well, but some players showed they had some work to do on their game.
Q: HOW GOOD ARE ARGENTINA?
WP: Well they beat the All Blacks and drew with Australia twice in Australia.
Talking to their management afterwards, they felt that it was a very worthwhile exercise from their point of view, given what they’re heading into.
They wanted stiff opposition and they felt we gave them that.
They’re a quality team. They have certain strengths and you know where they’re coming from, but you have got to be able to negate that.
Today we weren’t able to do that.
Q: WERE YOU FRUSTRATED WITH THE HANDLING ERRORS?
WP: We were very frustrated, as I think everyone watching would have been.
We got ourselves back into the game at 17-11. We then made a poor decision in their 22 with a pick-and-go and turned the ball over.
Then we didn’t get back into the game. We were punished for that. Against a team like this, you have to take your opportunities when they present themselves.
We dropped the ball cold when we created a nice break in the first half. We had our moments but we were our own worst enemies.
Q: DISCIPLINE WENT IN THE FINAL QUARTER – DO YOU PUT THAT DOWN TO THEM APPLYING PRESSURE OR CAN YOU LOOK AT YOURSELVES?
WP: When it’s a system error, we’ll look at it internally. Some of it was just over-exuberance by someone trying to make an impact. Taine’s late charge, those sorts of things. You put that down to a young man, who’s gone out there with an opportunity and he’s full of excitement. Those are learnings for those players because you can’t afford that in a Six Nations match or an autumn match.
Q: WHAT DID YOU TRY AND DO AT HALF TIME TO SWING THINGS BACK IN YOUR FAVOUR?
WP: We made substitutions earlier than we normally would. That was indicative of the heat out there, getting messages from the guys on the sidelines.
When guys start to go quiet and aren’t talking, you know they’re not far off. It was extreme heat and some of them didn’t handle it as well as others. We made some subs and tried to get some fresh legs on. Unfortunately, some of the players that went on committed some errors. It was a team effort.
Q: WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNED ABOUT YOUR PLAYERS TODAY?
WP: We’ve learned that we’re not as strong as we need to be in certain positions. We still need to be building depth and it’s how we do that with tricky matches to come between now and the Rugby World Cup.
In certain positions – you’ll be able to work it out for yourselves – we’ve got a lot of quality and in other positions we’re a little bit thin. That was exposed.
Q: WHAT WILL YOU DO FOR THE NEXT FEW WEEKS?
WP: We will review the whole month. We’ll do that next week and then we’ll send some messages out to the players in terms of what we’d like to see them work on in their club environments. We’ll also talk to the club coaches to pass information on. Then it’ll be a welcome break here in the UK.