Wales: Wayne Pivac wary of ‘dangerous animal’ New Zealand

Wales coach Wayne Pivac expects New Zealand to be boosted by their strong finish to the Rugby Championship and for them to be difficult to beat on their northern hemisphere tour.

The All Blacks are currently in fourth position in the world rankings after a series defeat against Ireland in New Zealand in July as well as Rugby Championship losses to South Africa in Mbombela and Argentina in Christchurch.

Those results put tremendous pressure on their head coach, Ian Foster, but his players did well to win the Rugby Championship after three successive victories against Argentina (53-3) and Australia twice (39-37 and 40-14).

The All Blacks are set to face Wales, Scotland and England and they kick off their campaign against Pivac’s troops in Cardiff on November 5.

Poor record against New Zealand

Wales and New Zealand have faced each other on 36 previous occasions with the All Blacks winning 33 of those encounters and they are currently on a 32-match winning streak in this fixture with Wales’ last win registered way back in 1953.

New Zealander Pivac expects a tough assignment against Ian Foster‘s charges and described them as “a dangerous animal”.

“We have looked at that All Blacks versus Australia game,” Pivac said.

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“The pace of the game – it was a different game to what we are playing at the moment.

“We’ve got a hell of an adjustment period in two weeks just to play with the intensity and the speed they play at.

“They put 40 points on Australia and 50 points on Argentina. I think since the changes they have made in their back-room staff and they’ve settled on a squad, it looks a pretty exciting squad to me.

“Any team that can put 50 and 40 on those two sides are probably going to be a dangerous animal.”

After a forgetful Six Nations campaign which ended with a home loss against Italy, Wales bounced back with a first victory over the Springboks in South Africa in July.

But they will need to continue improving to beat the All Blacks less than 12 months from the World Cup.

“I wanted to play them (New Zealand) in 2020, but Covid prevented that at a time where we were really keen.

“Last year, it was outside the (autumn Test) window so that played a factor and we had a lot missing with injuries.

A fantastic game

“We love playing the All Blacks. It’s a fantastic game, there will be a sell-out crowd I have no doubt, and the atmosphere is going to be like it was pre-Covid with the bands and all the excitement.

“I’m really looking forward to it. I know the players are looking forward to it and it is an opportunity to create history.

“We were hell-bent on doing that in South Africa and we would love to create some history in that (New Zealand) match.”