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Pivac's honeymoon period will be shorter than Ed Griffiths' return to Saracens if Wales fluff their lines

(Photo by Michael Steele/Getty Images)

Bonhomie and heartfelt platitudes have been the order of the day in this Six Nations build-up for Wayne Pivac, but he is about to find out that a welcome in the hillsides is reserved only for those coaches who can provide a big ‘W’ at the final whistle. His honeymoon period will be shorter than Ed Griffiths’ return to Saracens if Wales fluff their lines in front of 70,000 fans under the Principality Stadium roof.

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Thankfully the portents bode well.

Wales have never lost to Italy on home turf and while the 18-18 draw in 2006 was received with barely concealed disbelief, Italy are winless in the Six Nations since 2015, so a victory over the World Cup semi-finalists would set off the sort of seismic shock waves last seen in Pompeii, so what can we make of his first roll of the dis?

I feel the need, the need for speed…

Wales now have two viable back threes who could scorch the earth. On Saturday, it’s the turn of Leigh Halfpenny, Johnny McNicholl and Josh Adams to audition for permanent roles but conceivably the following weekend in Dublin, it could be Louis Rees-Zammitt, Liam Williams and George North lining-up against Ireland. In anyone’s book, that’s a giddy array of talent and below that, you’d assume if fit Owen Lane, Hallam Amos and the in-form Steff Evans could do a job for Wales.

Continue reading below…

WATCH: Saracens centre Nick Tompkins looks set to make his Wales debut after being named on the bench for Saturday’s Guinness Six Nations opener against Italy.

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The hope is the 10-12-13 axis can utilise such flair by playing expansive rugby. McNicholl, particularly, has looked like a Test player playing regional rugby for some time and has been name checked by coaches as looking ‘razor sharp’ in training. Don’t forget that North, who has stepped inside to 13 as he tries out for his ‘second career’, has tormented the Azzurri in recent years with eight tries in his last five appearances. He will know the message is writ-large, about getting more key involvements on the ball. With Jonathan Davies watching from the commentary box, we will find out if the big North Walian can replicate his esteemed team-mate.

Will we see him putting boot to ball as an exit strategy? How well will he marshal the exposed 13 channel and how will his communication hold up in a different role? The 91-cap wing will know that Nick Tompkins, a far more experienced player in the 13 shirt, will be chomping at the bit to show that Granny Enid’s boy can pass muster at Test level.

Josh Navidi will be missed but Wales have options

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The news Josh Navidi has a hamstring injury was met with glum faces from around the Wales camp yesterday. As a jack-of-all-trades, the Cardiff Blue is a mightily useful addition the backrow mix and was sorely missed in the World Cup semi-final. He can play the power game, hit the rucks, spoil opposition ball and tackle himself raw but one man’s loss is another man’s gain and Ross Moriarty will be desperate to make sure he clings on as a key cog in the Wales 23.

Pivac Wales
Navidi picked up the injury in the win over France. (Getty Images)

Even before Navidi was injured, I thought Navidi was destined to make an impact from the bench, with the raw dynamism of Wainwright preferred. The Dragon best complements the prodigiously-gifted, duo Taulupe Faletau and Justin Tipuric and as a trio, they’ll need to click because the backrow is the Italian’s most effective area and in Braam Steyn, Jake Polledri and Sebastien Negri able to match their Welsh counterparts with brimstone and fire. Wales have another option in Cory Hill who has shown he can play on the blindside but it is the fiercely competitive Moriarty who has most to gain from Navidi’s absence.

The scrum-half battle is bubbling away nicely…

We don’t know the extent of Gareth Davies’ groin injury but we can rest assured the West Walian is cursing his luck knowing that it has gifted his old sparring partner, Rhys Webb, with an early chance to assert his authority on proceedings, probably on a tiring Italian pack.

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Rhys Webb fired
Rhys Webb returns to Wales

For Tomos Williams, it will be only his sixth start in 17 appearances, and there is a desire from the Welsh management to see if he can influence games from the whistle, not in his familiar guise of impact sub. Knowing Webb is on the bench could unsettle the No 9 from Treorchy or serve to motivate him, but either way, Pivac needs to know how he’ll cope. If they don’t switch halfbacks together, Webb could share the pitch with someone who knows his game instinctively, in Dan Biggar and how that relationship reconnects will be duly noted by Pivac ahead of the Ireland game.

Stephen Jones’ early SOS a silver lining for Wales

It would be hard to underestimate just how much Stephen Jones learnt about the Welsh squad during an intense six weeks at the World Cup. While Pivac performs the management duties, Jones is very much the hands-on tracksuit coach and how the mechanics of the backline operates is down to him.

There has been an onus on not pulling apart so much of the solid foundations laid by the Gatland era, so during this Championship we may see a Gatland-Pivac hybrid style of play but if space is sought and the offload count rises, signature Jones plays may start to emerge which should give us an indication of where Wales’ game plan is going to differ to the previous era.

Gatland Jones talking Pivac Wales
Warren Gatland speaks with Stephen Jones during the new assistant’s playing days
(Photo by Mike Hewitt/Getty Images)

Jones is already hugely familiar with his new management team. A former teammate and close friend, Martyn Williams, is on hand as a sounding board while Sam Warburton offers youthful energy and at 31, an ear in the camp to sense the mood. On paper, at least, it looks like Pivac has assembled a shrewd bunch of lieutenants to take Wales forward and Jones is front, middle and centre of that group.

Places up for grabs at the coal face

The front row is one of the less glamorous environments in Test rugby. Little heralded but you know if it isn’t functioning correctly soon enough. While Ken Owens looks a key tenet of the front row, who binds either side him at scrum-time is less sure. Wyn Jones overtook Rob Evans at loosehead ahead of the World Cup, but he’ll know that the handling skills of Evans and the explosive carrying game of Rhys Carre will mean a dropping of standards is verboten.

On the other side, Dillon Lewis has to ensure the stability of the scrum to compliment his breakdown work and energetic carries in the tight knowing Leon Brown, whose scrummaging has improved infinitely, and WillGriff John – a man who looks like he’d be equally at home lugging Atlas Stones – is breathing down his neck. This while first-choice Tomas Francis convalesces from the shoulder injury incurred when tackling behemoth, Duane Vermeulen in Japan. Jonathan Humphreys will have his wrench out ready to tinker, and will be eager to know what he’s working with. Tadhg Furlong and Cian Healy await.

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J
JW 2 hours ago
'Passionate reunion of France and New Zealand shows Fabien Galthie is wrong to rest his stars'

Ok, managed to read the full article..

... New Zealand’s has only 14 and the professional season is all over within four months. In France, club governance is the responsibility of an independent organisation [the Ligue Nationale de Rugby or LNR] which is entirely separate from the host union [the Fédération Française de Rugby or FFR]. Down south New Zealand Rugby runs the provincial and the national game.

That is the National Provincial Championship, a competition of 14 representative union based teams run through the SH international window and only semi professional (paid only during it's running). It is run by NZR and goes for two and a half months.


Super Rugby is a competition involving 12 fully professional teams, of which 5 are of New Zealand eligibility, and another joint administered team of Pacific Island eligibility, with NZR involvement. It was a 18 week competition this year, so involved (randomly chosen I believe) extra return fixtures (2 or 3 home and away derbys), and is run by Super Rugby Pacific's own independent Board (or organisation). The teams may or may not be independently run and owned (note, this does not necessarily mean what you think of as 'privately owned').


LNR was setup by FFR and the French Government to administer the professional game in France. In New Zealand, the Players Association and Super Rugby franchises agreed last month to not setup their own governance structure for professional rugby and re-aligned themselves with New Zealand Rugby. They had been proposing to do something like the English model, I'm not sure how closely that would have been aligned to the French system but it did not sound like it would have French union executive representation on it like the LNR does.

In the shaky isles the professional pyramid tapers to a point with the almighty All Blacks. In France the feeling for country is no more important than the sense of fierce local identity spawned at myriad clubs concentrated in the southwest. Progress is achieved by a nonchalant shrug and the wide sweep of nuanced negotiation, rather than driven from the top by a single intense focus.

Yes, it is pretty much a 'representative' selection system at every level, but these union's are having to fight for their existence against the regime that is NZR, and are currently going through their own battle, just as France has recently as I understand it. A single focus, ala the French game, might not be the best outcome for rugby as a whole.


For pure theatre, it is a wonderful article so far. I prefer 'Ntamack New Zealand 2022' though.

The young Crusader still struggles to solve the puzzle posed by the shorter, more compact tight-heads at this level but he had no problem at all with Colombe.

It was interesting to listen to Manny during an interview on Maul or Nothing, he citied that after a bit of banter with the All Black's he no longer wanted one of their jersey's after the game. One of those talks was an eye to eye chat with Tamaiti Williams, there appear to be nothing between the lock and prop, just a lot of give and take. I thought TW angled in and caused Taylor to pop a few times, and that NZ were lucky to be rewarded.

f you have a forward of 6ft 8ins and 145kg, and he is not at all disturbed by a dysfunctional set-piece, you are in business.

He talked about the clarity of the leadership that helped alleviate any need for anxiety at the predicaments unfolding before him. The same cannot be said for New Zealand when they had 5 minutes left to retrieve a match winning penalty, I don't believe. Did the team in black have much of a plan at any point in the game? I don't really call an autonomous 10 vehicle they had as innovative. I think Razor needs to go back to the dealer and get a new game driver on that one.

Vaa’i is no match for his power on the ground. Even in reverse, Meafou is like a tractor motoring backwards in low gear, trampling all in its path.

Vaa'i actually stops him in his tracks. He gets what could have been a dubious 'tackle' on him?

A high-level offence will often try to identify and exploit big forwards who can be slower to reload, and therefore vulnerable to two quick plays run at them consecutively.

Yes he was just standing on his haunches wasn't he? He mentioned that in the interview, saying that not only did you just get up and back into the line to find the opposition was already set and running at you they also hit harder than anything he'd experienced in the Top 14. He was referring to New Zealands ultra-physical, burst-based Super style of course, which he was more than a bit surprised about. I don't blame him for being caught out.


He still sent the obstruction back to the repair yard though!

What wouldn’t the New Zealand rugby public give to see the likes of Mauvaka and Meafou up front..

Common now Nick, don't go there! Meafou showed his Toulouse shirt and promptly got his citizenship, New Zealand can't have him, surely?!?


As I have said before with these subjects, really enjoy your enthusiasm for their contribution on the field and I'd love to see more of their shapes running out for Vern Cotter and the like styled teams.

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