Former Wales captain Gwyn Jones has added further pressure on Wayne Pivac claiming the head coach is "out of his depth" leading the country.
Pivac led Wales to Six Nations glory last year, but failed to retain their crown in 2022, and has since had mixed results. The New Zealander's side won a Test on South African soil for the first time in the summer, despite losing the series.
However, a heavy defeat by New Zealand earlier this month and Saturday's humiliation against Georgia has raised questions about if Wales are progressing as a team. Jones who played for Wales between 1996-1997 and captained his country, before suffering a spinal injury, doesn't believe Pivac is the right man to progress Wales.
“You don’t see any development coming through," Jones told Welsh television station S4C. "I think he’s out of his depth at this level and I don’t see Wales developing. He’s been in charge for three years, and we’re not a better team now than when he started.
“He came to change Wales’ game, to play with a tempo and to score tries, and we’re unable to score tries against almost anyone.
“We’ve had one good championship where we had red cards going for us. But apart from that there’s not much to write home about. We lost against Italy, which was disappointing, and we won out in South Africa, but we’re back to exactly where we were.”
Pivac hit a new low as Wales boss last weekend as he presided over the nation's first-ever defeat to the Georgians in what was labelled one of the darkest days of rugby in the proud nation. Wales held a comfortable lead of 12-3 at half-time, but Luka Matkava's penalty two minutes from time sealed a famous away win for Georgia as Pivac's men crumbled under pressure.
Wales' woeful Six Nations defence this year included defeats by Ireland, Italy, France and England and a narrow home win against Scotland 20-17. Jones feels the humiliating defeat against Georgia was coming due to a perceived lack of plan to Wales' play.
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“It was disappointing and unacceptably poor to lose at home to Georgia," added Jones. "That kind of game, that kind of defeat, has been coming if you look at the way Wales have been playing for the last year.
"The players looked so flat, lacking in energy, lacking in spirit. Where is the heart? For me, the players are good enough to beat Georgia but if they don’t know what the plan is on the field then they’re going to look like they have no direction and that’s what the biggest problem was."
