Watch Wales’ three-Test tour of South Africa in July exclusively live on Sky Sports; Wales face Springboks in first Test in Pretoria on Saturday July 2, second Test in Bloemfontein on Saturday July 9, and third Test in Cape Town on Saturday July 16
Last Updated: 19/05/22 12:22pm
Wales head coach Wayne Pivac accepts he is under scrutiny ahead of the tour to South Africa
Wayne Pivac accepts that he has a job “where everybody is watching your every move” as he looks for his Wales players to bounce back from a demoralising home defeat against Italy.
The Wales head coach’s next assignment could hardly be tougher – a three-Test series away from home against world champions South Africa in July, live on Sky Sports.Pivac has named a 33-man squad for the tour, including uncapped Leicester flanker Tommy Reffell and Cardiff No 8 James Ratti, with the Springboks looming barely three months after Wales’ Six Nations campaign ended in disarray. Italy’s 22-21 victory – their first in Cardiff – saw Wales fall from Six Nations winners last year to a fifth-place finish, and that after finishing fifth under Pivac in 2020 too.”We’ve had some robust discussions as a coaching group,” Pivac said.”We let the dust settle a bit because emotions were running pretty high right throughout the country, and rightly so, because that is a result that nobody is proud of.”The big thing is we had those robust discussions, we will learn as much as we can from the experience, and hopefully it makes us a better side moving forward. Pivac has overseen two fifth-placed Six Nations finishes in three years “Certainly, that is the attitude we are taking. Wh …