Wayne Pivac


Wayne Pivac is a New Zealand rugby union coach. In November 2019 he replaced Warren Gatland as the Wales national team coach. A former sworn officer in the New Zealand Police, he was a constable at the Takapuna police station on Auckland's North Shore. He played his early rugby at Rosmini College and then Westlake Boys High School. Pivac played for North Harbour Rugby Union while he was a policeman.
Pivac is employed on a four-year contract by the WRU from July 2019, with a transition planned following the 2019 Rugby World Cup.

New Zealand

Pivac began coaching at Takapuna, before spending two seasons with North Harbour's second XV, then Northland, the province his father represented. Pivac coached Northland to National Provincial Championship Second Division success in 1997 and earned them promotion to the First Division the following year. Pivac then coached Auckland to win the NPC in 2002 and again in 2003, as well as the Ranfurly Shield. Pivac was voted New Zealand Rugby Union Coach of the Year in 2003.
Pivac was hired by the Fiji Rugby Union in February 2004 to replace coach Mac McCallion. Fiji won the Pacific Tri-Nations in Pivac's first year as head coach and Pivac also helped coach the Fijian Sevens to win the 2005 Rugby World Cup Sevens.
In January 2007, Pivac quit Fiji Rugby as the head coach, citing family commitments.
Following his move back to New Zealand from Fiji, Pivac was appointed coach of North Harbour in the same month. After a disappointing season with North Harbour, Pivac stepped down as coach in 2008 and was replaced by Craig Dowd and Jeff Wilson who were also replaced the next year after a further disappointing season. In 2011, Pivac succeeded Mark Anscombe as the Auckland coach in the ITM Cup.

Wales

In 2014 Pivac was appointed as the Assistant Coach of the Scarlets who play out of the Parc y Scarlets stadium in Llanelli, Wales. Having initially been taken on to work with the forwards, Pivac was then promoted to the Scarlets' head coach following the departure of Simon Easterby to Ireland. Pivac then steered his side to a PRO12 title in Dublin, Ireland, defeating Munster in a 46-22 six-try victory at the Aviva Stadium to secure their first major trophy for 13 years in May, 2017.
On 9 July 2018, it was announced that Pivac would succeed Warren Gatland as the Wales coach. He would remain as Scarlets coach for the next year and employed on a four-year contract by the WRU from July 2019, with a transition planned for after the 2019 Rugby World Cup.
His first game in charge for Wales was a non-international match against the Barbarians, on 30 November 2019, in the Principality Stadium. Wales won the match 43-33.
In February 2020, in his first Six Nations match as head coach, Wales beat Italy 42-0 in Cardiff.