'Absolutely woeful' - Pivac commited 'sackable' offence claims Wales great
Wales great Jonathan Davies has torn into head coach Wayne Pivac after his side fell to a humbling Six Nations defeat to Italy in Cardiff on Saturday.
Kieran Crowley’s Italy Italy stunned their hosts 22-21 to secure a first-ever win in Cardiff, which also ended their nightmarish 36-game losing streak in the competition.
Questions are once again being asked around the future of Pivac, who despite coaching the men in red to a championship win in 2021, is once more under the cosh from the media and public alike.
Davies, who has voiced his concern about the direction of Wales in recent months, laid into Pivac on Welsh television’s flagship rugby show – BBC’s Scrum V.
“If you lose to Italy, it’s sackable,” Davies told his fellow panelists. “If they want to get rid of him, they can, it’s justifiable to do it. The performance was absolutely dreadful. The Italians were the better team. Again, our attack was absolutely woeful. I’ve no idea what they’re trying to do. Dummy-runners, they don’t tip off – the only tip-off in the game was Faletau to Watkin and we scored. Forwards don’t look capable of getting over the gain line, when you can’t do that it’s difficult to do anything.
“We have to look deeper than that. If we won yesterday. If Wyn Jones had scored that try or Josh Adams had made that tackle… we are papering over cracks again. It’s far deeper than that. The under-20s lost today, the regions got smashed in South Africa and I don’t think the best players are playing for Wales at the moment and there’s no one coming through. And in the summer we go to South Africa.”
He also took aim at assistant coach Stephen Jones’ attack strategy, which has been blunt to say the least.
“Ultimately, Italy and France had the same tactic; kick the ball to Wales and let them attack us. Because they knew Wales’ attack wouldn’t break them down.
"Our attack was absolutely woeful…" @JiffyRugby
? BBC Two Wales
? https://t.co/Jpnbm4jN2C pic.twitter.com/1CoFBgBHxX
— BBC ScrumV (@BBCScrumV) March 20, 2022
“So you’ve got to ask what Stephen Jones’ ideas are. We don’t counter-attack. Selection; I don’t think we’ve got the back-row right, I don’t think we’ve got the midfield right and all of a sudden we change the back three as well. There’s no consistency. I can’t understand.”
Jiffy recently told RugbyPass that he fears Wales could be heading into the doldrums once more after two decades of relative Test rugby success.
“I’ve seen the way the likes of Ireland have developed in comparison to us, and things need to change below the national side,” Davies told RugbyPass in February. “People will say everything is all right because Wales have done well, but how long is that really going to last?
“We’ve been very lucky that we’ve had a great bunch of players who have stuck together, and done really well with limited resources but where has the planning and the strategy been over the past four or five years to ensure we continue to be successful?
“In England you ask a player who he plays for, and he’ll say I play for Harlequins and then England. But in Wales it’s different, a lot of players know they are guaranteed their place in the Wales side no matter how they play at regional level.
“That isn’t right. It’s all about creating a competitive environment below the national side, and competition for places is paramount when it comes to developing players.”
Comments on RugbyPass
Havili, our best 12 by a mile, will be in the squad, if he stays fit. JB is the most overrated AB in the last 50 years.
61 Go to commentsWe had during the week twilight footy, twilight cricket, tw golf plus there was the athletics club. Then the weekend was rugby 15s plus the net ball, really busy club scene back then but so much has changed and rugby has suffered. And it was all about changing lifestyles.
6 Go to commentsIn the 70s and 80s my club ran 5 Senior sides plus a Vets. Now it is 2 sides with an occasional 3rd team. Players have difficulty getting to training now, not sure why and the commitment is not there. It seems to me more a problem of people applying themselves and not expecting to turn up and play whenever they want to.
6 Go to commentsROG’s contract is until 2027. The conversation about a successor to Galthie after RWC 2027 may be starting now. We can infer that Galthie’s reign stops then. He is throwing the Irish Coaching Job angle in because he is Irish. The next Irish coach MUST be Leo Cullen. As well as being the best coach available, coaching the vast majority of Irish Internationals week in week out, he has shown incredible skill at recruiting the best coaching staff for the job in hand. That was a failing in France. Cullen is a shrewd guy and if there is a need for foreign coaches underneath him he won’t hesitate. Rightly so. Ireland does need to start to bring Irish coaches through. Not just at the professional level but we need to train coaches to man new pathways for developing kids from schools/clubs up through the divisions.
7 Go to commentsNo Islam says it must rule where it stands Thus it is to be deleted from this planet Earth
18 Go to commentsThis team probably does not beat the ABs sadly Not sure if BPA will be available given his signing for Force but has to enter consideration. Very strong possibility of getting schooled by the AB props. Advantage AB. Rodda/Skelton would be a tasty locking combination - would love to see how they get on. Advantage Wallabies. Backrow a risk of getting out hustled and outmuscled by ABs. Will be interesting to see if the Blues feast on the Reds this weekend the way they did the Brumbies we are in big trouble at the breakdown. Great energy, running and defence but goalkicking/general kicking/passing quality in the halves bothers me enormously. SA may have won the World Cup for a lot of the tournament without a recognised goalkicker but Pollard in the final made a difference IMO. Injuries and retirements leave AB stocks a bit lighter but still stronger. 12 and 13 ABs shade it (Barret > Paisami, Ione = Ikitau, arguably) Interesting clash of styles on the wings - Corey Toole running around Caleb Clark and Caleb running over the top of Toole. Reece vs Koro probably the reverse. Pretty even IMO. 15s Kelleway = Love See advantage to ABs man for man, but we are not obviously getting slaughtered anywhere which makes a nice change. Think talent wise we are pretty even and if our cohesion and teamwork is better than the ABs then its just about doable.
11 Go to commentsCompletely agree. More friday night games would be a hit. RFU to make sure every club has a floodlit pitch. Club opens again Saturday to welcome touch / tag. Minis and youths on Sunday
6 Go to comments1.97m and 105Kg? Proportionately, probably skinnier than me at 1.82 and 82kilos. He won’t survive against the big guys at that weight.
55 Go to commentsThe value he brought to the crusaders as an assistant was equal to what he got out of being there. He reflected not only on the team culture but also the credit he attributed to the rugby community. Such experience shouldn’t be overlooked.
7 Go to commentsGood luck Aussie
11 Go to commentssmith at 9 / mounga 10 / laumape 12 / fainganuku 14
61 Go to commentsBar the injuries, it’s pretty much their top team …
2 Go to commentsDon’t disagree with much of this but it appears you forgot Rodda and Beale, who started at the Force on the weekend.
11 Go to commentsExcept for the injured Zach Gallagher this would be Saders best forward pack for the season. Blackadder needs to stay at 7, for all of Christies tackling he is not dominant and offers very little else. McNicholfullback is maybe a good option, Fihaki not really upto it, there was a reason Burke played there last year. Maybe Havilli to 2nd five McLeod to wing. Need a strong winger on 1 side to compliment Reece
1 Go to commentsTo me TJ is clearly the best 9 in the competition right now but he's also a proven player off the bench, there's few playmaking players who can come off the bench as calm and settled as he is, Beauden can, TJ can and I doubt any of the scrumhalves in contention can, if they want to experiment with new 9s I want him on the bench ready to step in if they crumble under the pressure. The Boks put their best front row on the bench, I'd like to see us take a similar approach, the Hurricanes have been doing similar things with players like Kirifi.
61 Go to commentsROG has better chance to win a WC if he starts training and make himself eligible as a player. He won’t make the Ireland squad but I reckon he may get close with Namibia (needs to improve his Afrikaans) or Portugal. Both sides had 1000:1 odds to win the RWC in 2023 which is an improvement on ROG’s odds of winning a RWC as a coach. Unlike Top 14 teams, national teams can’t go shopping and buy the best players - you work with the available talent pool and turn them into world beaters.
7 Go to commentsthat backline nope that backline is terrible why would you have sevu Reece when he’s not even top 5 wingers in the comp why have Blackadder when there’s better players no Scott barret isn’t an automatic the guy is more of a liability than anything why have him there when you have samipeni who’s far far better
61 Go to commentsAh, good to find you Nick. Agree with everything about Cale. So much to like about his game
55 Go to commentsNot too bad. Questions at 6, lock and HB for me. The ABs will be a lot stronger once Jordan and Roigard return. Also, work needs to be made to secure Frizzell back for next season and maybe also Mo’unga; they’re just wasting time playing in japan
61 Go to commentsOn the title, i wonder for many of those people it is a case something like a belief in working smarter, not harder?
1 Go to comments