Wayne Pivac confident of Wales turnaround after defeat to Ireland
Justin Tipuric was one of the try-scorer for Wales in their defeat to Ireland
©PA
Wales head coach Wayne Pivac is confident of his side turning things around after suffering a 24-14 defeat to Ireland in the second round of the Six Nations in Dublin last weekend.
Tomos Williams and Justin Tipuric scored tries for the visitors but Ireland dominated the proceedings at Aviva Stadium as Jordan Larmour, Tadhg Furlong, Josh van der Flier and Andrew Conway dotted down to hand Wales their first defeat in the competition in two years while also ending their hope of repeating a Grand Slam performance that they achieved last year.
“We certainly don’t panic,” said Pivac.
“We have got to review the game. The guys are disappointed in not taking the opportunities that presented themselves in the game.
“We are obviously frustrated with our performance. We have a couple of weeks now to reflect on that so that we are a lot better in our next performance.”
The second round results meant France and Ireland hold the first two places with nine points apiece while Wales and England are behind at third and fourth respectively with five points each and Pivac believes the tournament is still wide open.
“We are two games in and are obviously disappointed as the players know we are a lot better than that performance,” said Pivac.
“It is a competition. No-one has won it – it’s not won after two rounds – so we need to make sure we keep improving and against France we have a very good performance and we get back to winning ways.
“The competition itself is going to be a very tight one this year. You can see that already".
Wales will now host France in the third round at Principality Stadium to be played on 22nd February.
