The West Wales region have twice been caught from behind this season in their draws with Ulster and Edinburgh. And the Kiwi coach is determined to sort get his side’s defensive performances on par with their potent attack, that has seen them score 15 tries in four games.
He said: “We are doing a lot of work around our defence and it is certainly an area of the game where we know that if we want to be serious contenders in this competition, we have got to get our stats right up. At the moment it is certainly not good enough.
“It has been a mixed first month, there has been a little bit of inconsistency and the boys are well aware of that. We have spoken about that and it is something that has been a bit of a theme for this week that we need to get our house in order, not only when we have the ball, but more importantly when we don’t. It is a big area of our game that needs to be tidied up.”
The Parc y Scarlets side take on the Newport Gwent Dragons in the second Welsh derby of the Guinness PRO12 season on Sunday. The Newport region clinched their first victory of the campaign last week with a bonus-point triumph over basement boys Benetton Treviso.
And Pivac is not expecting an easy ride against the resurgent Dragons, who have been strengthened with the return of a host of experienced stars.
He said: “We are expecting a very physical encounter. Having had a look at the Dragons so far this season they certainly empty the tank, so to speak. They put a lot of energy into their game.”
