Wales "grow an extra arm and leg when they're playing in the Principality Stadium" and they will be the best versions of themselves against Scotland as they bid to right the wrongs from Dublin.
That's the opinion of Scottish head coach Gregor Townsend, who is braced for a strong Welsh reaction this weekend after their 29-7 defeat to Ireland in the opening round of the Six Nations last time out.
While the Scots beat Wales in Llanelli behind closed doors in October 2020, they head to Cardiff - on the back of a dramatic Calcutta Cup win over England - searching for their first victory in the Welsh capital in 20 years.
Bidding to banish their Cardiff hoodoo, the Principality Stadium will also welcome a sell-out Six Nations crowd for the first time in two years and Pivac's men will be fired up to give a stronger account of themselves than their outing across the Irish Sea would suggest.
All in all, then, it looks set to be a more challenging affair than many pundits are giving it credit for, with Townsend - who laughed off press conference queries about which Welsh weaknesses he wanted to exploit - expecting a much stronger Wales side.
"You're better in your second game, normally in the Six Nations," he told a press conference before travelling to Wales.
"In the first game things didn't go smoothly for you, so if you're going up against a top side like Ireland, who have got lots of momentum and you're playing them away from home, you may struggle to get into the game early on.
"But I felt the second quarter and in parts of the second half, Wales were equal to Ireland. They created chances, they showed the defence can get turnovers. We know they'll be better for that game and they're a top side with great players right throughout the 15."
As for the biggest Wales weaknesses from Dublin he is looking to exploit, Townsend laughed: "You think I'll answer that question?"
More open to evaluating Wales' strengths, Townsend name-checked two key opposition players he worked with during last summer's Lions tour as threats to watch out for: front-rower Wyn Jones and vice-captain Adam Beard.
"The way Wales want to play is an attacking game, their defence has changed over the last year or two as well, they're very aggressive in the defensive set-up, they push high so that asks questions of our decision-makers, and they've got experienced players in the pack," he said.
"Wyn Jones had a great Six Nations last year, on the Lions tour, Adam Beard came through and played a Lions Test. We know they have experience, quality, they were champions last year, they grow an extra arm and leg when they're playing in the Principality. We'll see the best version of Wales this weekend, we just have to make sure our best version is on the field as well."
The men in blue have not won in Cardiff since 2002, having been humbled 34-7 on their last Six Nations visit to the home of Welsh rugby in 2018, but Townsend feels his team - buoyed by landmark victories away to England and France last year - now have the resilience to handle testing occasions such as this Saturday's.
"We've not been there for four years so a lot has happened in those years to this team," the 48-year-old Scotsman said. "We've had experiences against some top sides both home and away, and we've shown resilience in those games.
"We've not won them all but I believe the Tests we had at Twickenham and in Paris last year sets us up this week for what will be a great challenge with a full stadium at one of the best venues in the world.
"It would be hard to top what we did in Paris but the challenge is a bigger one now in many ways because of our history in Cardiff and the fact it's a full crowd, which it wasn't in Paris. We know we've got a few areas to improve and Wales will challenge us in different areas than England did."
As for the impact of a packed-out stadium mostly full of Welsh fans, he added: "It's a challenge, it's something to embrace. We were on the way to the stadium for a captain's run two years ago when we had to turn around as the whole country got shut down.
"I'd imagine some of our players are looking forward to it. The atmosphere at Wales games is incredible. We're going to enjoy that, enjoy listening to the Scotland supporters that are in the stadium as well, and play the game we know we're capable of, playing with the togetherness we've shown - that needs to be on the pitch for the full 80 minutes."
Townsend has made five changes to the team which started last weekend's win over England, including the introduction of centre Sione Tuipulotu in place of his club-mate Sam Johnson and Sam Skinner starting in the back-row after Jamie Ritchie's season was ended with the need for hamstring surgery.
The entire front-row has also been changed, with Pierre Schoeman, WP Nel and Stuart McInally replacing Zander Fagerson, George Turner and Rory Sutherland.
"The team is obviously based on what we believe is the best to win us this game," the head coach explained.
"That might be on form but it also might be on combinations we believe can work against the way that Wales play and the way that we want to play.
"Regarding the front row, we looked last week at getting a fresh front row on at a certain point in the game. Now it's their opportunity to start and we'll be looking at bringing a reserve front row on together like we did last week."
Townsend said he is hoping for improvement in "lots of areas" after what he dubbed a seven out of 10 performance against England.
"[We want to] get into our phases to allow our best decision-makers to play in the right areas - whether that's keeping ball in hand, which part of the defence to attack or putting the ball behind the defence.
"From a set piece point of view, lineout did go well in terms of winning ball but I think there's more we can do there around our maul, our defence, likewise with our scrum. I don't think we got the opportunities to scrum at the weekend, there were a lot of resets and shenanigans going on in that scrum.
"I also feel that our defence can improve. We were happy with a few aspects of it but we can go up another level this weekend."
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