Wayne Pivac insists Wales have plenty to play for against France despite end to Six Nations defence

The head coach is braced for a tough task against the unbeaten Six Nations leaders

Dejected Wales players after the final whistle at Twickenham (PA)

(PA Wire)

Wayne Pivac insists that Wales have “plenty to play for” despite seeing their hopes of a Six Nations title defence effectively ended.

Wales’ 23-19 defeat against England at Twickenham left them nine points off the scorching pace set by unbeaten leaders France.

Les Bleus, on the scent of a first Grand Slam for 12 years, need victory over Wales and England to complete a clean sweep.

France are averaging 34 points and four tries per game in this season’s tournament, which underpins their tag of being firm favourites when they head to Cardiff on March 11.

“We have two home games left, and from our point of view they are very important,” Wales head coach Pivac said.

“We would like to finish strongly, especially at home. What better place than to try and pick up a result against France, who are playing so well at the moment.

“There is plenty to play for. We’ve had two fantastic matches over the last couple of Six Nations against France.

Wales head coach Wayne Pivac has acknowledged France’s Six Nations threat (Mike Egerton/PA)

(PA Wire)

“They are a good side, and it is going to be a great game if the last two are anything to go by.”

Wales have lost just one of their last five home matches against France in the Six Nations, but it will take a Herculean effort to keep that sequence going.

France’s imposing all-court game suggests few weaknesses, especially at the critical breakdown area, where Wales were guilty of discipline lapses against England.

Pivac added: “Some of them were silly penalties, not rolling away, getting trapped on the wrong side of the tackle.

“A couple of times we got isolated after line-breaks. Those things happen.

“It is an area of the game we are working hard on, and it is something we need to get right for France because they are dangerous.”

Despite scoring three second-half tries during an impressive fightback from 17-0 down, Wales were ultimately undone by the goalkicking of fly-half Marcus Smith and number eight Alex Dombrandt’s try.

And it consigned them to a fifth successive Six Nations loss at Twickenham, where they have not won in the tournament since 2012.

Wales appeared to struggle with referee Mike Adamson’s interpretation at the ruck, and Smith took his opportunities, collecting an 18-point haul.

Wales captain Dan Biggar said: “We felt like we were not quite on the right end of it.

“You look at some of the calls – some are perhaps debatable, but some are clear. We’ve got no complaints about the performance of the referee at all.

“We have to look at ourselves. The start we made in that first 20 minutes, we deserved to be down on the scoreboard.

We couldn't back up good on good

Wales captain Dan Biggar

“We actually made some decent dents in that first half, but we couldn’t back up good on good.

“We know we haven’t quite got it right, but I thought we threatened the line and we brought a lot of players into play really well.

“We have got to get that on the pitch from minute one. It allows us to dictate things. We have to get that on the pitch early doors, as opposed to being reactionary.”