The measures taken to safeguard the mental health of Wayne Pivac's locked down Wales players
Wales boss Wayne Pivac has revealed the clinical resources placed at his disposal and that of his players to help keep their mental health ticking over during the coronavirus pandemic suspension of rugby. The sport has been in cold storage since the 11th-hour postponement of the March 14 Guinness Six Nations match versus Scotland in Cardiff and no one is any wiser nearly seven weeks later as to when it might return in 2020.
Background preparations are still ongoing for Wales’ July to New Zealand but Pivac – who took over from Warren Gatland following the 2019 World Cup – believes it is only a matter of time before those matches are officially postponed, meaning there could be further demand on the WRU’s mental health resources to guide everyone safety though the ongoing period of inactivity.
“WRU have an HR department who have done a lot of research, put out a lot of articles to all of us, players included, all the staff, around dealing with all sorts of things, from anxiety to sleepless nights, the whole spectrum of mental health,” explained Pivac during a media conference call from his home in Wales on Wednesday.
“Apart from that we employed at the start of my tenure a sports psychologist who is also a clinical psychiatrist, so he is working on a daily basis with our staff and our players and is available to the whole WRU staff. He is doing a lot of research, doing a lot of one-on-one stuff over the phone, video hookups, those sorts of things.
“We are giving them [the players] everything we can to get through this period. A lot of it is getting into routines, a lot of it is around goal-setting, a lot of it is around having somebody to talk to as well when you are in tough times and let’s face it, there has been a couple of days where I have picked up the phone and spoken to Dale Thomas, who is our doctor. He has been excellent to talk to, just to bounce ideas off of a lot of the time. It is crucial that they have a lot of information and they know how to get to people if they need to with everything that is going on in their lives in this period of time.”
Pivac has addressed the on-going speculation over Jonah Holmes, Leicester Tigers and Wales
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Pivac paid tribute to WRU officials for making the decision to postpone the round five championship match, going against government advice at the time and ensuring a sell-out match in Cardiff didn’t wind up accused of being a super spreader of the virus in the UK similar how the Cheltenham racing festival and the Liverpool versus Atletico Madrid Champions League football match are now viewed.
“Hindsight is an easy thing but clearly the right decision was made and you have got to remember government were making decisions around that time and the game wasn’t called off at government level so it was left to the decision-makers at Welsh rugby to come up with the decision they did.
“Clearly they made the right decision and they should be applauded for that. We trained as if the game was going ahead and that is what we needed to do as professionals until we were told otherwise. We were told the game was off and everyone accepted that and what has happened has happened since. The lockdown came in pretty quickly so we are pleased that the game didn’t go ahead.”
The lockdown, though, didn’t prevent some unnamed Wales players from falling ill, but Pivac has confirmed that those affected by the virus are now fit and well again. “I have spoken to all the players from the Six Nations squad individually since the lockdown so I know who is well and who has picked up any sort of illness.
“There are about four or five players all up. No one has been required to go to hospital. They have had symptoms such as coughs and temperature so they have dealt with that at home and come out the other side of that.
“What that is telling us is you could be the fittest bloke in the world but this thing is not going to discriminate. It would appear that young, fit athletes can pick it up as older people can, as males versus females. We have been very, very lucky, very fortunate. No one has been seriously ill with the virus.”
Comments on RugbyPass
Wasnt late. Ref 2 assistants andTMO all saw it so who are you to say it was?
3 Go to commentsAre the Brumbies playing the Blues twice in a row?
3 Go to commentsBig difference from the Saders. Forwards really muscled up and laid a solid platform. Scooter brought some steel and I liked the loosie combination. Newell has been rather disappointing this season but stepped up big time - happy also to see Franks dot down. He should do that more often! Reihana had a good game and there seems to be more flair and invention with him in the saddle. McNicoll plays well from the back and is reliable plus inventive when he joins the line. Keep it up chaps!
3 Go to comments🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
30 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
3 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusaders , you can keep going.
3 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
30 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
30 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
30 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
30 Go to comments