Wales coach Wayne Pivac has encouraged his critics to re-evaluate their assessments of his team after tomorrow's Six Nations opener against Ireland.
The 2019 Grand Slam winners lost seven of their ten games under Pivac in his debut season after succeeding Warren Gatland as head-coach.
Wales have faced criticism from either side of the Irish Sea ahead of their hosting of Ireland at the Principality Stadium on Sunday afternoon and Pivac feels there were encouraging signs in their Autumn Nations Cup campaign.
"I think we’re in a different space now. Judge this team after Sunday with the comments that have been made. If you look at what we did post-lockdown it wasn’t good and we weren’t happy with where we were at.
Out-half Dan Biggar said the players are aware of dismissive comments being made about them in the Irish media this week but he insists they're focused on their own performance in Cardiff.
“There’s been loads and loads of hype about different Irish ex-players or whoever it is, speaking in the press and different things. That’s fine, but a lot of them haven’t played the game for a long, long time. The game moves differently. I’m sure all those who made those comments had a couple of tough days at the office when they were playing.
“We’re hoping we can do our talking on the field on Sunday. If we don’t we know we are going to be judged harshly.
“But we are trying to block all that out and turn up on Sunday with a positive mindset as a group and hopefully we’ll do our talking then.”
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