Aaron Wainwright believes Wales’ enforced move to play their next four home matches at Parc y Scarlets could play into their hands.
With Principality Stadium continuing to be used as a field hospital for Covid-19 patients, Wayne Pivac’s side will play the rest of their home matches this year in Llanelli, starting with this weekend’s Guinness Six Nations finale against Scotland.
All three of Wales’ upcoming home Autumns Nations Cup matches will also be played in Carmarthenshire, with fixtures against Georgia, England and an as-yet unnamed opponent all scheduled.
Wainwright and his teammates head into Super Saturday off the back of a 38-21 defeat to France in Paris last weekend, and the flanker believes the new surroundings could help them get back to winning ways.
“A lot of the boys have played regional rugby there. We’re looking forward to making it our home for a couple of matches and putting things right,” Wainwright said.
“International rugby is a lot more intense. We probably didn’t cope with it very well, but we’re looking forward to the challenge of Scotland.”
Defeat at Stade de France was Wales’ first match since their Round 4 Guinness Six Nations contest with England at Twickenham in March, which ended in a 33-30 defeat.
They head into the final weekend of the 2020 Championship with nothing more than pride to play for, with the reigning champions winning just a single match against Italy this time around, in Pivac’s first year in charge.
And despite domestic rugby resuming back in August for many of the players, Wainwright admits the step up to the international stage was a big test for himself and his teammates.
“The step up from regional to international rugby is different,” the 23-year-old said. “The speed of the game is a lot faster and you have to be a lot more careful with decision making.
“That can have a massive impact on the game. It’s been seven months without an international so to have that game was massive for us getting ready for Scotland.
“We’ll go away and review the things that did go well and have a look at the things that didn’t. In regional games we’ve had no crowds and it took a couple of games to adapt to that.
“In international rugby the crowds are a lot bigger and there is a lot more energy in the stadium. From a players’ point of view we did miss that. Hopefully we can put it right next week.
“We’ll put a big focus on getting things right for Scotland.”
