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Pivac preparing for World Cup as Wales set to meet familiar foes

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Head coach Wayne Pivac is anticipating another tough challenge after Wales were drawn alongside Australia and Fiji for the 2023 Rugby World Cup.

Head coach Wayne Pivac is anticipating another tough challenge after Wales were drawn alongside Australia and Fiji for the 2023 Rugby World Cup.

The trio went head to head at the same stage in 2019, with Wales topping the group in Japan after Warren Gatland orchestrated a perfect record from their four matches.

The other two sides in the group are yet to be determined, with an Asian/Pacific qualifier and European qualifier to be added to the mix, but there is a possibility it could be Georgia and Uruguay who take up the remaining two places, making it a carbon-copy of the pool stage from a year ago.

And looking ahead to his first World Cup as Wales head coach, former Fiji coach Pivac is well aware of the challenge his side will be up against in France, and is already getting preparations underway.

“It’s a similar pool but in another country,” Pivac said.

“I’m certainly very excited though. Fiji have just been in the Autumn Nations Cup and I’ve got an affinity with Fiji having coached them in 2007.

“It gives us a focal point. Australia with Dave [Rennie] is going to be a big challenge.

“But we’re three new set-ups, really [Wales, Australia and Fiji]. There’s a lot of work going on in Wales in terms of building depth at the minute.”

If Wales manage to progress through the group, they will face an opponent from Pool D in the knockout phases, which could well be one of Japan, Argentina or familiar foes England.

There has been many a Guinness Six Nations that has been lit up by Wales and England going toe to toe, including this year’s 33-30 classic at Twickenham, and Pivac admits the thought of meeting later in the tournament is one to look forward to.

“We can’t get too carried away,” he added. “We’ve got pool matches to talk about first.

“If we’re to get through and get that fixture, the excitement level will obviously go through the roof in Wales with a Wales v England match.”

Wales reached the semi-finals at the last tournament, before eventually going down to champions South Africa in the last four in Gatland’s last match in charge before Pivac took the reigns.

But with the 2021 Guinness Six Nations just a matter of months away, Pivac is already looking to the future during a transitional phase for the national side, and expects a much better showing this time around in the build-up to 2023.

“We’re looking forward to rolling our sleeves up and getting into the Six Nations. We’ve also got a very tough autumn series coming up next year,” the Wales boss said.

“There’s a lot of work to be done but building our depth for 2023 is important for us. Hopefully we’ll be playing our best rugby at that stage.”