Those walking past O’Neill’s in Cardiff in the rain a couple of hours before the Wales v Australia game on Saturday were treated to a number of lively tunes being given an airing, among them one of Bonnie Tyler’s biggest hits, containing the plea: “I need a hero.”
Skewen’s finest wouldn’t have been alone in coming up with that refrain.
Wayne Pivac would have been thinking along the same lines.
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A remarkable display from the young flanker Jac Morgan came close to delivering what Wales’ head coach would have been looking for.
But some things are not just meant to be.
In a bewildering final 25 minutes, Wales lost their fly-half to injury, made seven substitutions, one of them for a front-row yellow card, and conceded 26 unanswered points en route to losing 39-34. It was a spectacular unravelling by any standard.
And it has left Wales head coach Pivac on the brink of losing his job.
A win backed by a good performance might have been enough to improve his prospects of surviving the review of Wales’ autumn series that the Welsh Rugby Union are undertaking this week — though there wouldn’t have been any guarantees on that front.
But a defeat after a chaotic finish to a game?
Let’s just say it’s now going to take a lot for Pivac to emerge from the review still in charge of the team.
What will such a process involve and how will the New Zealander fare?
The union are likely to focus on a number of key areas.
Results
This isn’t a good one for Pivac.
The autumn has seen Wales lose three out of four matches, with the losses made up of a 55-23 shellacking at the hands of New Zealand, a 13-12 reverse against Tier Two Georgia and the setback from a winning position against the Wallabies.
All the reverses were in their own way deeply damaging to the head coach.
New Zealand went unbeaten on their four-match end-of-year-tour but Japan finished within seven points of them, Scotland within eight and England managed a draw. A 32-point margin of defeat for Wales was just grim.
It doesn’t get too much better if the union decide to look at Wales’ results during the entirety of Pivac’s reign — 13 wins, 20 defeats and a draw from 34 games played.
There have been highs: the surprise Six Nations title of 2021 among them, plus the historic first Welsh triumph over the Springboks in South Africa.
But Wales have regressed all too quickly after such successes.
Indeed, in 2022 they have failed to record back-to-back victories.
Home defeats by Italy and the Georgians added to a sense of a team unable to be relied on.
It’s a record, then, that takes some defending.
Performances
It isn’t just the results that have disappointed this month.
The performances haven’t been anything to write home about, either.
Wales dug deep to defeat Argentina, responding after their New Zealand lashing of a week earlier. They were highly motivated after criticism and able to get on top of opponents who had beaten England six days previous.
But there were few purple passages in their game.
Taulupe Faletau, Justin Tipuric and George North had exceptional matches, with Tomos Williams right up there as well, but there was little sight of Wales’ attacking game. “Argentina are not easy to break down,” said Pivac later. “It’s not the perfect performance but it’s a step in the right direction.”
A week later, Wales were dreadful to Georgia. One step forward, then, two light years back.
For 55 minutes against Australia they played some of their best rugby of the Pivac era, albeit against weakened opponents. The ball was kept alive, Morgan led the charge across the gain-line, Alun Wyn Jones threw Leone Nakarawa passes and offloads better than Leone Nakarawa circa 2015, Taulupe Faletau was Taulupe Faletau, Gareth Anscombe and Joe Hawkins passed beautifully.
But an injury, a couple of yellow cards and questionable substitutions changed matters entirely.
The abiding memory for many won’t be of the nice rugby Wales played in the opening half.
It will be of Rhys Priestland pulling up his jersey just below his nose, with eyes shut, an image of utter dejection.
He didn’t actually say ‘How did it come to this?’
The picture said it for him.
Style
It wasn’t supposed to be like this.
Wayne Pivac landed the job as Wales head coach on the back of the wonderful rugby the Scarlets had been playing. They were fluent, adventurous, skilful and accurate. Easy on the eye doesn’t do it justice.
But with Wales, attacks have lacked flow and often looked predictable.
Pivac’s team made 45 handling errors over the four games this autumn, threw out 31 bad passes, as the official stats people call them. There have been knock-ons, while the ruck speed has been variable.
Wales have struggled to get close to the type of rugby Pivac and Stephen Jones oversaw at the Scarlets, with the greater speed and intensity of the Test game making it hard to transfer such a style onto the big stage.
On a good day, they can still compete in a battle of attrition, even against very good sides. They showed as much in South Africa last summer.
But three years into the life of this regime, potency and consistency in attack have proven elusive.
The players’ view
Previous campaign reviews have seen the team management submit their take on how matters have unfolded.
This one is expected to proceed along similar lines.
It will then be up to WRU chief executive Steve Phillips and performance director Nigel Walker to decide whether to seek the players’ views.
In any squad there will be some who back the coaches, especially if they’ve been consistently favoured in selection.
But there’s also a fair chance there will be others who haven’t been impressed by what they’ve seen.
There have been murmurings that some have lost faith or are losing faith in Pivac and Jones. There again, it depends who you talk to. A number of players are said to have been singing from a different hymn sheet over the weekend.
But if enough are confused about the pattern of play and what’s expected, then it won’t be good news for the current head coach.
Selection and substitutions
“What the flip is going on?” would have been the refrain around many rugby clubs in Wales at the sight of Taulupe Faletau and Alun Wyn Jones leaving the field on 72 minutes with the game coming to the boil against Australia.
Possibly the odd word in the quote above might have been different.
But the sentiment would have been the same.
Wales were taking off 267 caps worth of experience at a time when their captain Justin Tipuric was in the sin bin and the vastly experienced hooker Ken Owens had earlier been replaced.
There are suggestions Jones, who’d had an outstanding game, had begun to look tired. Maybe Pivac was receiving information that the rest of us weren’t privy to on both players.
But it did seem an odd time to remove them from the fray.
No doubt the union will want to know the coach’s reasoning behind the move.
Selection can make or break a coach. Warren Gatland tended to be particularly good at it, making big calls that had a habit of coming off.
Some of Pivac’s decisions this autumn haven’t improved matters.
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Why has Nicky Smith not been seen since the loose-head had 35 minutes against New Zealand in round one? There’s a case for feeling that had Wales had Smith and Tomas Francis on the bench for the match with Georgia they would have avoided defeat. Instead, their scrum collapsed and so did their victory hopes. Sam Wainwright wasn’t ready for Test rugby, something that should have been picked up in training, and Rhodri Jones has found it hard to truly make a mark in this series.
Wales have used three full-backs this month, three inside centres and three blindside flankers. Over Pivac’s reign, they have picked 12 different players at No. 6.
A big success has been the use of George North in the centre over the past couple of years.
And. also In the coach’s defence, the outline of his best team is emerging.
But for a variety of reasons, injuries among them, he hasn’t been able to consistently name it.
Verdict
If Pivac survives the review he will have done exceptionally well.
The autumn has been woeful in a rugby sense with Wales looking brittle and confused at times.
The WRU are likely to factor in the poor Six Nations campaign and the summer’s events in South Africa before making any call on the head coach. The loss to Italy will probably overshadow the second Test win over the Springboks.
And they will need to make sure they have the finances in place to dispense with his services and bring in a replacement, whether on an interim basis or otherwise.
But it isn’t looking good for Pivac, a decent man who has tried his best but found it hasn’t come together for him.
From here, it looks like the end game is close to being reached.
Wayne's world may not be without a significant bump over the coming week.
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