It will be business as Nations bow will be
WAYNE Pivac is preparing for his first Six Nations match as Wales coach. Here’s what he had to say after naming his side to take on Italy.
Question: Talk us through Johnny McNicholl making his debut and George North moving to centre? Wayne Pivac:
Johnny is a player we know a lot about. I’ve worked with him for a number of years.
He had a good run with us against the Barbarians and he’s trained well during the week, so he has the start.
George has played a few games for the Ospreys at centre. He’s started there for Wales before so it’s not foreign to him.
George has trained very well, he’s taken the challenge on and is very much looking forward to a fresh start, if you like, this weekend.
Q: An interesting competition at scrum-half, what about Rhys Webb’s challenge to Tomos Williams? WP:
They have both trained very well. We want to see Tomos start, he’s had more games off the bench than he has starts. It’s a good test for him, following up his start against the Barbarians, when he did very well for us.
Rhys has come back, he’s trained well, you can see the experience he brings, he’ll get some game time.
We’ll see how those legs go after being out for a wee while.
Q: How much of an impact are you hoping for from Taulupe Faletau? WP:
Hopefully he’ll start for us the way he did with Bath. He’d been out for a while there and came back very strongly.
He brings a lot of experience and it’s been great having him around training.
Hopefully, he’ll have a good start.
Q: Is it important to get off to a flying start or would you just settle for any old win? WP:
Winning is important to everyone in round one and we’re no different.
We’re concentrating on putting in a there is a way. At the moment the boys are very willing, so it’s a pretty good start in terms of training.