Monday’s announcement that Wayne Pivac will take over from Warren Gatland as Wales head coach after the 2019 Rugby World Cup did not come as much as a surprise.
Over the last three years at the helm of the Scarlets, Pivac has enhanced his reputation to such an extent that it seemed almost an inevitability he would take over from his fellow New Zealander.
He has brought silverware back to Llanelli in the form of the 2016/17 Pro12 title, promoted youth and rehabilitated reputations – all while playing attacking rugby that has turned heads across the globe.
So impressive has his time been at Parc y Scarlets that when the WRU gathered to consider Gatland’s replacement – you would think the conversation didn’t last all that long.
Pivac’s path to the top has been a circuitous one – but every lesson learned has made him the coach he is today.
The former policeman from Takapuna, who cut his teeth coaching the Auckland police team alongside a certain Steve Hansen, has had some downs as well as ups en route to Principality Stadium.
After a breakthrough spell at Auckland that culminated in a Ranfurly Shield, Pivac took over Fiji immediately after the 2003 Rugby World Cup.
While he departed shortly before the 2007 edition of the same tournament, his fingerprints were all over the Pacific Islanders’ run to the quarter-finals that year.
After a less successful return to Auckland, west Wales came calling and Pivac came to the part of the world he now calls home.
Initially expected to be Simon Easterby’s assistant, when Ireland snapped up Easterby it was to the top job that Pivac immediately ascended.
And since then it has been nothing but good news for the Scarlets, who stormed to the Pro12 title in 2017, dispatching both Leinster and Munster on Irish soil en route to the crown.
And they proved that was no flash in the pan the season just gone as they made a first European Champions Cup semi-final in a decade and again made the Guinness PRO14 final.
This time they found Leinster too hot to handle but Pivac’s influence on Welsh rugby is clear to see.
The likes of Aaron Shingler and Hadleigh Parkes have emerged as international stars for Wales in the last year or so, while fresh young talent like Steff Evans and Rob Evans have also forced Gatland’s hand on the international scene.
Throw in Tadhg Beirne’s rise to Ireland honours this summer and John Barclay’s promotion to Scotland skipper and it is clear that Pivac knows what it takes to make an international star.
And for those doubting his allegiances as a New Zealander, the man himself could not disagree more.
“I see myself as a Welsh coach,” Pivac said. “I’m obviously from New Zealand, but I don’t feel like an outsider. Having lived in the country for four years, I don’t see myself as an outside coach.”
So a former policeman who will not pull his punches, a man already with international experience on his CV and a now innate understanding of Welsh rugby? Sounds like the perfect appointment.
