Pivac defends players in pitchside hot take as Wales reach lowest ebb

Wales head coach Wayne Pivac has defended his players after their shock 13-12 loss to Georgia in the Autumn Nations Series.

For the Georgians, it’s the greatest victory in their rugby history, but equally, it represents the lowest point in reign of the Pivac, who just this year oversaw an embarrassing loss to Italy in Cardiff.

It’s been a dire year to date for Welsh rugby, whose domestic sides are struggling with the national side unable to string together a run of wins.

Pivac’s side have won just three games this year – against Scotland, South Africa and Argentina – last week. Critically for Pivac, this latest loss has quickly sunk any optimism generated by their gutsy display against Michael Cheika’s Pumas.

The New Zealander defended his players after their latest humiliating loss when interviewed by Sarra Elgan for Prime Video.

“We’ve just been in the changing room. Obviously we’re very disappointed. We’ve got to make sure we pull this game apart, learn very quickly [for Australia].”

“I’m not sure I’d say they [the players] didn’t know what they were doing. We should have gone ahead by one or two tries, but it wasn’t to be. I thought we threw a couple of opportunities away in the first half. We have to comb through it. It’ll all be pulled to bits.”

Pivac was quizzed as to whether or not the team had treated Georgia with the respect they deserve coming into the match. “Certainly during the working week, all the right things were being spoken about. We were looking for a bigger performance than we got. In the second half, a lot more possession and territory went their way. We’ll have to look at the reasons for that.”

“We’re a team. We won’t go away from that,” said Pivac when asked where the responsibility for the loss would be laid. “Everybody has a part to play and as coaches you always look at your performances first. We’ve got ourselves into this position, and we have to get ourselves out. We need to come out for a much better performance next week.”