Jamie Roberts has described Wales' performances this year as "not acceptable" and "not good enough" and says he is not convinced that Wayne Pivac is the right man to lead Wales through to the World Cup. Head coach Pivac was under huge pressure to beat Australia today after last week’s shocking defeat to Georgia, but it wasn’t to be as his team let slip a huge 34-13 lead to lose 39-34 at the Principality Stadium.
That means they have won just three of their 12 Tests this year, while also suffering a first ever home defeat to Italy. On punditry duty for Prime Video, former Lions centre Roberts was asked if he thought New Zealander Pivac was the man to lead Wales forward. He said: “It’s the big question isn’t it? Wales showed far more, better attacking rugby in the first half than I have seen them play in the last 12 months. It was fantastic to watch them impose themselves.
“However, regardless of the result today, I am not quite sure we have seen enough to warrant him taking us to the World Cup. Wayne has said himself that relies on other people to make that decision. Obviously, he wants to stay but I haven’t seen that performance regularly enough throughout the last 12 months to convince me that Wales can have a shot at winning the World Cup.
“Test match rugby is about winning, regardless of how you play, it’s a results-driven business, it’s professional sport. I look at this objectively and this year we have lost at home to Italy and Georgia, for the first time in our history. If we want to dine at the top table of international rugby, that’s not acceptable. It’s just not been good enough. If that’s happening this year, what can we expect to happen at the World Cup next year?”
You can read Delme Parfitt's analysis of the performance here and Mark Orders' player ratings here. Fellow pundit, ex-Wales and Lions skipper Sam Warburton, said: “The consistency needs to be better. It shouldn’t take a loss to Georgia to get that reaction. That’s what people are finding frustrating, just how up and down things are. I heard some of the Australian players talking really passionately in the week about Dave Rennie staying. If we heard that from the Welsh camp as well, then that’s quite a powerful thing. So the WRU have got to do their due diligence, speak to the right people, the heads of department, the senior players and figure out if the environment is the right one to drive us forward and only those inside will really know.
“Let’s call a spade a spade: it’s not been good enough this year and the standards are way below what they should be, but only those inside will really know and that’s why they need to be brutally honest with what’s happening.”
Former Wales and Lions coach Warren Gatland, who has been tipped as a potential successor to Pivac, was asked if it was too close to a World Cup to make a change: “I think you have got to go through that review process and talk to people close to it. If Wayne has got the backing of the players and stuff then you carry on as the way things are and you build on that performance against Australia,” he said.
“It was a much better performance from Wales and they will be absolutely gutted that they haven’t been able to close that down. It’s challenging times, it’s tough and you understand as coaches that international rugby is about handling the pressure. It’s all about results, it’s about winning.”
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