Has Pivac successfully painted over the cracks.

First I have to say, the game against Georgia was shocking. A few of the youngsters did all they could to show they are waiting in the wings, as and when then get the nod, but on the whole, I thought it was a very poor performance.

But listening to the so called "expert" pundits, some like Warbs, who I have (had) so much respect for as a player, seem to be either afraid to tell it has it is, on air and in the media, or they are blind to what is actually happening before them on the pitch. If the first, they need to take a lesson out of the late JJ Williams book and tell it as it is. It might not be popular, but you can polish a turd as much as you like, in the end its still a piece of sh!t.

But, for me the more concerning thing, is this win seems to be letting Pivac off the hook and allowing him to simply paint over the cracks. Well at least for a week, when, I think, England will put a record score on us and show the massive holes we have, again... And dare I say it, as much as the prospect really hurts and upsets me, it could be the medicine we need to show the WRU that Pivac is not the next step forward for welsh rugby, but is actually a massive step backwards.

I still crave for a win next week against England, and I promise you, if they pull off a miracle, I'll sink a pint or two to celebrate. But deep down, I'll be heartbroken, that Welsh rugby will be back in its "as long as we beet England" phase...

So, as per the post title, do you think Pivac has successfully painted over the cracks, or do you think he's on the right course for a fantastic glossy finish.

New coaches need time to implement ideas especially if their aim is to alter the way the team plays so much. Add to that the important players under Gatland are getting towards the end of their careers or coming back from injury. The wru picked him and must have had some idea this dip could occur and Gatland went through them himself.

Even if we do somehow beat England, the entire tenure shows he is not capable for the job. The match against Georgia was poor alright. Cai Griffiths is another one who keeps telling it as it is whilst claiming to have deep insider knowledge.

When Rassie took over he had only a 50% win rate in his first season. Give Pivac time

Rather unsuccessfully, methinks.

No game plan, blunt in attack and tired looking players. Doing a good job.

TightHEAD wrote:No game plan, blunt in attack and tired looking players. Doing a good job.

There's a game plan alright but getting it going is the problem. Scarlets played some great rugby under him but he might need to adapt it for international rugby.

It's tough to get an attacking game plan going when you are dealing with such little consistent possession. I think the performance yesterday was about as good as we could have hoped for, for a team that is clearly in transition, lacking both confidence and a lot of their best players over the last couple of years.

What was absolutely proven, is that rumours of the players not being behind are simply not true. You don't put your body on the line as consistently as they did yesterday unless you have that desire to win.

The quality is a problem for him, especially if the pack is getting bullied. Even if the players were all fully bought into what hes telling them and he did have the tactics right its hard for a team to compete when they struggle to secure possession then butcher it trying to force the game.

Impossible from the outside to know how much the teams pulling for him and how much is players underperforming because he hasn't got them on the bus, but given the struggles of the regions to compete its pretty clear all the problems dont lie solely with him. Do agree to some extent that Wales "put out" against England so its not like they caved in all together, but Im not sure they have the confidence and belief to really play naturally. The injuries can give some mitigation to it all, but its not such a high number as to be beyond normal

Cant see how a scrappy game against England papers over the cracks at all. Sure they avoided a spanking, but the fact is there's clearly a gap and they pushed England much closer at the start of the year.

The issues go beyond Pivac, and being realistic its not like WRU has the cash or kudos pull to easily attract a proven test coach should they want rid of him (and pay his contract out). The world rankings tell the tale, Wales have slipped considerably and theres not an immediate obvious way thats going to change.

Loaded question.

He's realised that Wales needed to prioritise their defence more, not just tactically, but emotionally. Hayward's drift defence wasn't working. The defence looks absolutely atrocious still in the wide channels and disorganised between certain units, but at least they've been allowed to relish defending and get 'excited' by keeping the opposition at bay. That's a development since the proper Six Nations, where defence looked like an afterthought.

Is that papering over the cracks? Or is that learning on the job?

I genuinely think Pivac is by far the best placed man to turn the Welsh national team in to something 'good'. The more they play, the more I think that: moreso even than Dave Rennie, who I wanted so the Scarlets wouldn't lose Pivac.

He knows the flaws of Welsh rugby inside out. He knows the limitations of the regions. He knows where we're weak, where we're strong. He went out and got Rowlands straight away. He has picked several back row players - tough ones, too - knowing that we lack firepower and that giving these youngsters game time will help in the future. He could easily have just papered over the cracks with different choices but, no, he's made good decisions in those positions. The papering over the cracks would be picking more established players or by trying to go for the short term fix. I don't see him doing that. It seemed like we tried that v Scotland because it's the Six Nations but then the defence coach was sacked after we tried to play Gatlandball. Does that sound like a dishonest set up unaware of its own failings? It doesn't to me.

It's a team in transition. In every sense. Wales play some lovely strike moves at times and we've seen those work well. What we haven't seen is any sort of consistent phase play to make use of whatever patterns they're working on in training. Which needs to change but obviously it's hard.

I don't doubt some players aren't happy with the coaching ticket but I think...what else? Who else? And more importantly, how else? The regions are atrocious, I'll say it again: Gatland was able to come in and pick the Ospreys team and won a Grand Slam playing 'basics'. Pivac has a far less fertile club game to select from. It's not even comparable.

He's doing the right thing. I'd prefer fewer Englishmen in the Welsh team tbh but then what can you do, if you can't beat the project player nations, you have to join them or fall behind. I also like that it seems less 'dictatorial' coaching, it's giving players room to fail and also lead as they see it. It's very Kiwi in that way. It shows where Wales are weak and it's not all down to the coach to paper over those cracks: in fact, I'd say Gatland is the epitome of papering over the cracks in Welsh rugby by playing a way that allowed the WRU to neglect everything else below Team Wales. What good has that done over the last 12 years? Some trophies, yes, but not exactly dominance, nor a RWC. Not to say Wales 'should' have won more but I can't see the logic here - unless you cannot see what Wales are even trying to do, then I can't see how anyone can complain about the fact that there was always going to be a learning curve. Coronavirus hasn't helped as, without it, if this were a natural decline from February to the Autumn without a lockdown completely ruining rugby, then it would be fair to stick to boot in, but we're in such odd times and with so little rugby played, it's basically impossible to judge where we are. It'll be easier by the end of the Six Nations.

Rather than papering over the cracks, he's shown what cracks there are in Welsh rugby while quickly looking to address them. He seems calm and composed and consistent. That's all you can ask for. I'm pretty confident we're on the right track. It's very easy to criticise but I guarantee no one will be able to come up with any sort of realistic alternative. And that's the proof in the pudding - some people love to complain. It's like the Team America quote about 3 kinds of people. Some people just love dumping over Welsh rugby whatever happens.

With the injuries Wales have - and regularly had under Gatland - I welcome playing in a way that minimises crashball rugby. How much better would this Welsh team be with Sanjay, Anscombe, JD2, Tipuric, Ellis Jenkins, Scott Williams, Navidi, Ken Owens, Aaron Shingler, Ross Moriarty...I'm sure there are a few I'm missing out. Pivac hasn't even had close to a full squad to pick from yet. There are major issues when it comes to competing for and winning games of rugby but I genuinely think they can be tweaked, that becoming hard edged and ruthless can come - but it requires a much longer learning curve than Gatland and Edwards' style of rugby that they could implement in the space of a few weeks in 2008.

Patience. Wales aren't great at rugby but we're better than we've looked since the end of the first lockdown. Sacking Pivac at this point would be insane.

I also think it's worth remembering how Gatland and Howley's teams would dip in form/ability. Paritcularly when suffering with injuries and rotations.

Lost to Japan. Lost to Samoa. Scraped past Japan at home. Drew with a bad Fiji team at home (beat them by 70 points 12 months later). Lost to the Chiefs in NZ. And would often scrape past teams when playing the reserves.

Wales have a hefty injury list at the moment. A good 10-12 first team players are unavailable, and those who are are either lacking in match fitness (Faletau) or are in need of replacing soon (AWJ).

Is Pivac's Wales really underperforming? For me, the only unacceptable result remains the Scotland game at home. The performances v France and Ireland have been disappointing this autumn, and the results in the 6Ns against those two teams were also disappointing as we definitley could have won them with a little less naivety and a more robust defence, if nothing else.

But other than that...I don't think it's that bad. Performances were flawed but promising before lockdown. If we can get back to that point asap, and then move on and build from it, then good - 3 of the last 4 games have been atrocious but the England game was a step in the right direction. Still nowhere near we need to be, but better. Much better. The only thing Wales are missing is the ability to scrape wins: let's say we had 4 from 4 in the Six Nations and had scraped wins in each of the games we narrowly lost but still ended up losing to Scotland...would we all be as worried? No.

Gatland's success was about winning most battles, and winning the ones that count, but he wasn't flawless. I just think we forget the bad stuff under him and that's now what we're focusing on with Pivac.

The team I would like to see for Italy is -

Wyn Jones
Dee
Francis
Ball
Hill
Wainwright
Botham
Faletau

Davies
Sheedy
LRZ
Johnny Williams
Tompkins
Adams
Liam Williams / Halfpenny

Parry
Carre
Lee
Rowlands
SLH
Hardy
Biggar
Watkin

The big omission is AWJ, not because I don't think he makes our best XV, but because we need to develop for life after him, and to get the best from him, I think we need to manage him. There is no benefit to risking Navidi and Tipuric, I would have Faletau as captain. Botham has looked sharp in his appearances so far, James Davies has disappointed.

The scrum half conundrum continues, I still think that Gareth Davies and Tomas Williams are our two strongest, but I liked what I saw of Hardy against Georgia.

I would select Ball and Rowlands at 2nd row, we need to see how that goes. Does Pivac even rate Hill? Probably one of the smarter and most skilled forwards there, he can play 6 as well Wayne... I also thought Hardy was too slow, but a lot of the team looked sluggish against Georgia to be fair. James Davies was a joke inclusion, I do like the look of Jac Morgan so far at Scarlets though.

mikey_dragon wrote:I would select Ball and Rowlands at 2nd row, we need to see how that goes. Does Pivac even rate Hill? Probably one of the smarter and most skilled forwards there, he can play 6 as well Wayne... I also thought Hardy was too slow, but a lot of the team looked sluggish against Georgia to be fair. James Davies was a joke inclusion, I do like the look of Jac Morgan so far at Scarlets though.

Rowlands has certainly come in at a time where we need him to add to the numbers of quality locks we have, with the likes of Beard dropping off in performance and Seb Davies not stepping up yet. But Hill was very highly regarded by Gatland, and was playing unbelievably good rugby in the 2019 6 nations., to the extent that I had him as an outsider for the Lions.

As an outside observer, I'd say Pivac needs to be given some time. I'd probably even go so far as to say that he needs until the end of the 6N 2022, and the time to watch most closely is the Wales tour during the Lions.

Pivac has inherited a team that Gatland had driven to the level that it could consistently perform well against NH opposition and was improving against SH, but with several of the key players nearing the end of their international careers - and with Shaun Edwards leaving for France. I'd also argue that the interpretation of the laws has moved against Gatland's style play somewhat.

So Pivac has more to do than most - he's got to rebuild the coaching team, refresh the playing base and establish a new style of play. Doing that in a pandemic-disrupted mashup of 6N and AI matches was always going to be a tough ask, and once the results started to go against them it was always going to be an uphill struggle.

The next 6N could also be tough, with France and Scotland improving markedly, England maintaining their level and Italy more competitive (if still not an 80 minute team). However, the summer tour offers a chance to try some new things and embed some new players in a relatively safe context for experimentation. If Wales come back from that with the core of a squad and a style of play starting to come together then it's a positive sign.

The likely result of two tests in Australia is two losses for most teams - so the focus needs to be on the performance rather than the results.

Poorfour wrote:As an outside observer, I'd say Pivac needs to be given some time. I'd probably even go so far as to say that he needs until the end of the 6N 2022, and the time to watch most closely is the Wales tour during the Lions.

There's a few reasons why we don't have much time, but the main reason is that our international team is the money-earner. People won't pay to see losers , nor buy the merchandise. It's not just the results though, it's the performances and also Pivac's on-going questionable selections.

Re, team selection. Was George North left out of the England game because he was injured?
Or as he and Pivac had a falling out?

majesticimperialman wrote:Re, team selection. Was George North left out of the England game because he was injured?
Or as he and Pivac had a falling out?

There is a third option.

LondonTiger wrote:

majesticimperialman wrote:Re, team selection. Was George North left out of the England game because he was injured?
Or as he and Pivac had a falling out?

There is a third option.

Did he fall out with Rugby Racing and Beer on an internet forum and get banned?

Well having just seen the team for Italy, I'm convinced Pivac is drawing some names out of a hat. North is at 13 btw.

mikey_dragon wrote:Well having just seen the team for Italy, I'm convinced Pivac is drawing some names out of a hat. North is at 13 btw.

1. Nicky Smith (Ospreys) (37 Caps)
2. Sam Parry (Ospreys) (3 Caps)
3. Tomas Francis (Exeter Chiefs) (51 Caps)
4. Will Rowlands (Wasps) (4 Caps)
5. Alun Wyn Jones (Ospreys) (142 Caps) (CAPT)
6. James Botham (Cardiff Blues) (2 Caps)
7. Justin Tipuric (Ospreys) (79 Caps)
8. Taulupe Faletau (Bath) (80 Caps)
9. Kieran Hardy (Scarlets) (1 Cap)
10. Callum Sheedy (Bristol Bears) (3 Caps)
11. Louis Rees-Zammit (Gloucester) (3 Caps)
12. Johnny Williams (Scarlets) (2 Caps)
13. George North (Ospreys) (97 Caps)
14. Josh Adams (Cardiff Blues) (29 Caps)
15. Liam Williams (Scarlets) (66 Caps)
REPLACEMENTS:
16. Elliot Dee (Dragons) (32 Caps)
17. Wyn Jones (Scarlets) (29 Caps)
18. Leon Brown (Dragons) (11 Caps)
19. Cory Hill (Cardiff Blues) (28 Caps)
20. Aaron Wainwright (Dragons) (26 Caps)
21. Gareth Davies (Scarlets) (56 Caps)
22. Ioan Lloyd (Bristol Bears) (1 Cap)
23. Jonah Holmes (Dragons) (4 Caps)

I quite like it Mikey. North at 13 is the only slight eye raiser, but then neither Watkin nor Tompkins have particularly impressed. Thats a pretty impressive reserve pack to come off the bench too.

I dont think Jones has been perfect in his integration of new players but Pivac gor me has been too scatter gun in his approach. Constant changes of players and position doesnt do much for organisation in attack or defence.

I look at it as a new coach coming in, using glorified friendlies to learn more about his player base, when those old faithful selections from the previous coach haven't been fit or firing.

The back 3 is the personnel we've all wanted to see there. Half backs have been impressive in their club form, so are given a chance from the start. Experience in the pack in Faletau, Tipuric and AWJ and the front row are given their opportunity to stake their claim for the starting spot, when the other options haven't nailed down their chances.  

While I agree it doesn't help the attacking side of things, show me a team this autumn who have attacked well? Defence wise, we have been much improved from the Ireland game, I don't think that has been our issue.

What is important is that for the 2021 6N, the front five is settled to create more continuity in set piece, and the half backs are decided on to help direct the type of game we want to play with the ball.

As a Welsh fan, I'm more happy to see North at centre that I would be as an England fan of seeing Joseph on the wing, simply because we don't have any other options in top form. If i was an England fan, I would be keen to see Thorley on the wing, as he's been class for Gloucester.

I've always liked North at 13. Admittedly his defence isn't great, and neither is Tompkins'; and with JD2 there's a 50/50 chance he could retire. Looks like it is an issue for us, Kieran Williams to 13 anyone? I think we have too many 12's and not enough 13's.

Pivac did say he would give everyone a shot and was looking to the future, but as far as combo's go I don't see how some of these help for the future. We're absolutely obsessed with thrusting in as many open-sides to the 23 as possible.

mikey_dragon wrote:I've always liked North at 13. Admittedly his defence isn't great, and neither is Tompkins'; and with JD2 there's a 50/50 chance he could retire. Looks like it is an issue for us, Kieran Williams to 13 anyone? I think we have too many 12's and not enough 13's.

Thoughts changed on this or the general feelings toward Pivac after North and the teams (well 50 minutes) display after the I.taly game?

Noted the Welsh wings also struggled a bit with the tackling against Italy, and Sheedy is never going to be more than plucky

The posters on the match thread seem a lot more positive about the squad and resources than they have for some time. Couple of the youngsters really stood up, and couple of the old guard too. Is some of the perception of how bad Pivac has come been down to dodgy execution, coupled with his "give every one a chance" and injury driven selections. Do you think he might be closer to knowing who can move the team forward and have a more settled squad for the 6 nations that can build a team to challenge the top 3?

Do the leadership get any credit for reacting to what Italy were doing and the issues at the breakdown and making adjustments at half time that enabled them to dominate the game once back to 15 men?


Sure it was only Italy and not a cricket score but the players looked more positive coming off than they did the Georgia game.

I was surprised by Italy’s rush defence. They were good in the first half and really rushed up well and closed us down. There was very little space for us and, with few decent ball carriers, we struggled to get over the gain line. There were a few times where we started some phases in their half but after 5 or 6 phases we were quite far back in our own half as they had rushed us, stopped the next phase dead, rushed us, stopped us dead, etc., etc. And then we ended up needing to kick. So kudos to Italy for that. Luckily, as pointed out in commentary, our aerial game is fairly decent so we were able to put good pressure on them under the high ball and get ourselves out of trouble. But I think that is where we then needed to find creativity elsewhere too. There was no space for the backs and I’m not sure Hardy’s passing was zippy enough to give the backs enough time. Saw nothing from JD2 in attack really. Can’t remember him really getting the ball from Sheedy and being able to do anything with it. So we then started to do some offloads, Led by the back row of Tips and Faletau, and we started getting somewhere. I think the offloading game is the way forward for us as we haven’t got giant guys in the forwards to power us over the gain line. When we offloaded we started to open them up and get behind their decent defence.

Gooseberry wrote:

mikey_dragon wrote:I've always liked North at 13. Admittedly his defence isn't great, and neither is Tompkins'; and with JD2 there's a 50/50 chance he could retire. Looks like it is an issue for us, Kieran Williams to 13 anyone? I think we have too many 12's and not enough 13's.

Thoughts changed on this or the general feelings toward Pivac after North and the teams (well 50 minutes) display after the I.taly game?

Noted the Welsh wings also struggled a bit with the tackling against Italy, and Sheedy is never going to be more than plucky

The posters on the match thread seem a lot more positive about the squad and resources than they have for some time. Couple of the youngsters really stood up, and couple of the old guard too. Is some of the perception of how bad Pivac has come been down to dodgy execution, coupled with his "give every one a chance" and injury driven selections. Do you think he might be closer to knowing who can move the team forward and have a more settled squad for the 6 nations that can build a team to challenge the top 3?

Do the leadership get any credit for reacting to what Italy were doing and the issues at the breakdown and making adjustments at half time that enabled them to dominate the game once back to 15 men?


Sure it was only Italy and not a cricket score but the players looked more positive coming off than they did the Georgia game.

Not sure why your aiming those questions at my comment. My thoughts on Pivac have not changed. He has some very good players at this disposal but makes blunders with selections - he still did so yesterday. His selections have a bit of Pro-Scarlet and Anti-Dragons about them, imo. As I said i have always rated North at 13 as he’s such a good attacker there. He’s wasted on the wing... but we need to find someone suitable to play inside him. If North is at 13 then you want a second playmaker at 12. I think Tompkins can play that role well, and possibly Johnny Williams - you’ve probably seen more of him than I have.

I think Parry had a decent game and could be the second hooker behind Owens, who’s by far our best hooker. Elias is certainly our worst. Dee won’t get a fair shot at it under this coach. He was left out of the squad originally and rightly so, but once in he played a bit better than Elias.
Botham, SLH, Sheedy, Bleddyn, LRZ, Lloyd should be good players for the future. They will be hampered by the selection of the personnel and a poor forwards coach though.

Well the Autumn Nations Cup is over. And to answer my original question at the beginning.. Has Pivac managed to paint over the cracks. I think he has. But those cracks are there and getting deeper each game. I fear we will have another very poor 6 Nations next Feb. Pivac isn't up to it. And like Trump's only goal was to undo everything Obama did, it seems to me, Pivac's goal is to undo everything Gats did.

I think we'll have another very poor 6 Nations finishing 5th again, as I don't think we'll fall below Italy. That may result in the end of Pivac, but unfortunately the damage has been done.

It's so much like the last time we had a ex-Scarlets coach. He took Wales on a spiral dive as well. How ironic, that it was Pivac, as the coach of Fiji then, putting the last nail into Gareth Jenkins coffin. Likely to be Shaun Edwards landing the final blow to Pivac next time, in the final game of next years 6 Nations.

I don't subscribe to the idea that Pivac needs to be sacked. It's far too early in his tenure, and I also accept what he said regarding what he wanted from this autumn's matches, namely, getting to see a lot of his players perform in the Welsh shirt. If you look at how things sit now, it's far clearer who is in out first 15 than it was a few weeks ago, heres my suggestions on what we'll see come the 6N-

Front Row- Wyn Jones and Ken Owens look key to our set piece, Owens especially. The other hookers have disappointed in his absence, I still like Dee as backup. Tight head will be between Francis and Lee, Pivac has clearly abandoned the ball playing prop in favour of the stronger scrum, which I totally agree with.

Second Row - Jake Ball is the man to partner AWJ, he brought far more power and physicality when he returned after injury. Hill and Rowlands will bench, Seb Davies is still a distance away from the international level.

Back row - Faletau and Tipuric are nailed on, they will both need to perform in the big games though. I would expect Navidi to join them due to no other flankers really taking their chance, and due to his high level before his injuries. It has given Botham, SLH and Davies more of a taste of international rugby, all will need to go back to regions and improve. Add in Moriarty, Jenkins and Griffiths to push Wainwright for the bench.

Half backs - This is where we see the big decisions being made. All the scrum halves had a chance, none particularly shone. Fly half is going to dictate how we want to play, Biggar or Sheedy?

Centres - Johnny Williams has come in and looked a good option, I would expect to see him pair up with JD2. Watkin and Tompkins have had more game time, again, without really impressing.

Back three - 3 from Williams, Adams, LRZ and Halfpenny

If a bunch of players haven’t impressed then why have we stopped looking? IMO he needs to take a look at WillGriff John, Ollie Griffiths, Morgan Jones, Jarrod Evans, Kieran Williams. Half of those should have been in the current squad, but he’s clueless when it comes to selection.

The fans are quite clueless too. A lot seem to have it in for Sheedy already, must be Biggar fans. A lot are also going crazy by lauding players over the basics, hence the on-going Tipuric love-in - a shame they can’t laud his breakdown basics as he doesn’t do enough of it.

mikey_dragon wrote:If a bunch of players haven’t impressed then why have we stopped looking? IMO he needs to take a look at WillGriff John, Ollie Griffiths, Morgan Jones, Jarrod Evans, Kieran Williams. Half of those should have been in the current squad, but he’s clueless when it comes to selection.

The fans are quite clueless too. A lot seem to have it in for Sheedy already, must be Biggar fans. A lot are also going crazy by lauding players over the basics, hence the on-going Tipuric love-in - a shame they can’t laud his breakdown basics as he doesn’t do enough of it.

I know we differ on our opinion of Pivac, but I don't recall too many objections when the squad was announced.

Sheedy showed some positive signs, for example the delayed pass that led to the Tipuric try. But the 1st half he was running laterally, offering no threat, just shipping the ball on to one of the centres. Tipuric is not a fantastic breakdown 7, but he does offer a good link. If he's paired up with a Navidi or Ellis Jenkins on the flank, he offers a great deal.

Pivac has a bad run of games really, to try and hit the ground running in the Six Nations. Playing Ireland at home, then Scotland away isn’t a great start. By the time we play Italy away (4th), we could already be in another losing rut and under all sorts of pressure.

RiscaGame wrote:Pivac has a bad run of games really, to try and hit the ground running in the Six Nations. Playing Ireland at home, then Scotland away isn’t a great start. By the time we play Italy away (4th), we could already be in another losing rut and under all sorts of pressure.

We could, but equally if we win those two, we are back up at the levels we were regularly with Gatland. Pivac will be judged rightly on the 6N next year, not on what has happened this autumn.

chris_501 wrote:

mikey_dragon wrote:If a bunch of players haven’t impressed then why have we stopped looking? IMO he needs to take a look at WillGriff John, Ollie Griffiths, Morgan Jones, Jarrod Evans, Kieran Williams. Half of those should have been in the current squad, but he’s clueless when it comes to selection.

The fans are quite clueless too. A lot seem to have it in for Sheedy already, must be Biggar fans. A lot are also going crazy by lauding players over the basics, hence the on-going Tipuric love-in - a shame they can’t laud his breakdown basics as he doesn’t do enough of it.

I know we differ on our opinion of Pivac, but I don't recall too many objections when the squad was announced.

Sheedy showed some positive signs, for example the delayed pass that led to the Tipuric try. But the 1st half he was running laterally, offering no threat, just shipping the ball on to one of the centres. Tipuric is not a fantastic breakdown 7, but he does offer a good link. If he's paired up with a Navidi or Ellis Jenkins on the flank, he offers a great deal.

I seen a fair bit of it here and there. Dillon Lewis, Seb Davies, James Davies... No WillGriff John or Jarrod Evans. Arguably he shouldn’t have picked Patchell either. Also not sure what was with calling up players late (SLH, McNicholl, Ll Williams) and then just throwing them in. He doesn’t like to pick Dragons players. He also put a fly-half on in place of Williams rather than a full-back (Holmes was on the bench). No idea why he kept picking Lewis over Brown. Dillon is a failure, Brown needs international coaches and players to help harness his potential. Why doesn’t he pick Cory Hill?

I think that’s just how Sheedy is used to playing at Bristol. He is a good one for the future though. Our team just wasn’t functioning that well with Webb and Biggar controlling things. I think three 7’s is a bit much. Would prefer to see just two start, with an 8 like Faletau or whoever else is available.