By James Dodd
Wayne Pivac believes his side’s “painful” autumn helped plants the seeds for what could blossom into a glorious Grand Slam Six Nations for Wales.
Going into the final round of the tiurnament, Wales are four from four and a win against France in Paris on Saturday night will secure a fifth Six Nations Grand Slam since 2005.
In particular, head coach Pivac has been delighted with the improved set piece.
“In the autumn, there was a lot of rotation of players,” said Pivac, who struggled to gain victories throughout 2020.
“We were learning about players. That was a conscious effort to do that. With that, came a bit of pain.
“Certainly, our scrum is improving. The discipline at scrum time has improved.
“I think our shape is really good. We’re working together. I think the line-out has obviously improved.
“The set piece is a big one because when that’s not functioning as we saw in the autumn as well as you’d like – it puts a lot of pressure on your attack and conversely it gives a lot of ball to the opposition.
Simon King/Replay Images.
“Your defence is overworked at times. That’s probably the big thing and our defence has tightened up as well. You wrap it all up with good discipline.”
Pivac moved to Wales in 2014, when he initially joined the Scarlets as assistant coach before being named head coach shortly after the departure of Simon Easterby to Ireland.
After two average seasons in Llanelli, Pivac then guided the Scarlets to a magnificent Pro12 title at the end of the 2016/2017 season.
Pivac thinks those times helped reassure him during 2020 with Wales.
“As coaches, when you’ve been doing it awhile, you draw back on experiences,” Pivac said.
“It might be at different levels. I’ve been lucky enough to be involved with some pretty good teams, and we’ve had some pretty good results. You draw on those experiences.
“There are always highs and lows. You’ve just got to make sure there are more highs than lows, I guess.
“Certainly, this group of coaches have stayed believing and the players, also.
“I think I said throughout the autumn – I’d be more concerned if it wasn’t a happy camp. You look at the environment they have off the field and that speaks volumes of where the team is at.
– Best 🏴 team in decades
– Best 🇫🇷 team since 2007
– Absolutely stacked 🏴 team
– Tight one score games & great tries every round
– Dupont, Vakatawa, Beirne, LRZ, Tipuric, Itoje, Russell, etc.…Yet somehow, if a 🏴 GS, then ‘non-vintage’🤔. What am I missing?
— Edward Jenkins (@edjenx) March 18, 2021
“It wasn’t through a lack of hard work. There were a lot of circumstances that we couldn’t place, which didn’t help the results.
“We’re aware of that and had a big picture in mind, which is the 2023 World Cup.”
After hammering Italy in the previous round, the New Zealander has only made one change to the starting 15.
Rested Adam Beard comes back in for Cory Hill.
“We think Adam has been playing well up until the rest last week,” said Pivac.
“He’s a big man, and we’re up against some big men. I think he has done a great job running the line-out, as Cory did in the game against Italy.
“Just a switch for those two. Cory, obviously, has played well in the games where he has come off the bench – he’s added a real impact. We’d like that combination to continue.”
Another significant change is on the bench where Tomos Williams returns after suffering a hamstring injury in the opening game against Ireland.
Gareth Davies starts, whilst Lloyd Williams doesn’t feature.
The way Adam Beard has turned his season around has been one of the stories of Wales’ Grand Slam crusade. Here are his thoughts on his “crazy” journey.https://t.co/jZvMWY774i
— Simon Thomas (@simonrug) March 18, 2021
“Early in the week, we named Gareth. It was just whether Tomos would be ready in time to take some part, really.
“That was cleared up Tuesday afternoon. So, Tomos comes onto the bench. He has got a box of tricks. He’s a very talented player as we know.
“We started him in the first game against Ireland and unfortunately, he picked up the injury.
“He brings a little bit of x factor. That may or may not be required in that last quarter of the game. I think it will be an exciting time for him coming into the game.”
France: 15 Brice Dulin; 14 Teddy Thomas, 13 Virimi Vakatawa, 12 Gael Fickou, 11 Damian Penaud; 10 Matthieu Jalibert, 9 Antoine Dupont; 1 Cyril Baille, 2 Julien Marchand, 3 Mohamed Haouas, 4 Romain Taofifenau, 5 Paul Willemse, 6 Dylan Cretin, 7 Charles Ollivon, 8 Gregory Alldritt.
Replacements: 16 Camile Chat, 17 Jean-Baptiste Gros, 18 Uini Antonio, 19 Swan Rebbadj, 20 Anthony Jelonch, 21 Baptiste Serin, 22 Romain Ntamack, 23 Arthur Vincent.
Wales: 15 Liam Williams; 14 Louis Rees-Zammit, 13 George North, 12 Jonathan Davies, 11 Josh Adams; 10 Dan Biggar, 9 Gareth Davies; 1 Nicky Smith, 2 Ken Owens, 3 Tomas Francis, 4 Adam Beard, 5 Alun Wyn Jones, 6 Josh Navidi, 7 Justin Tipuric, 8 Taulupe Faletau.
Replacements: 16 Elliot Dee, 17 Nicky Smith, 18 Leon Brown, 19 Cory Hill, 20 James Botham, 21 Tomos Williams, 22 Callum Sheedy, 23 Uilisi Halaholo.