WAYNE Pivac is confident that Wales are on the right track to play a more expansive but still successful style after the 'black and white' of the Warren Gatland era.

The new head coach endured a tough Six Nations, which still has a round to go because of the coronavirus outbreak.

Pivac, who enjoyed a first outing against the Barbarians in an uncapped friendly in November, started with a drubbing of hapless Italy but then suffered losses to Ireland, France and England.

The new boss enjoyed great success with the Scarlets thanks to their attacking, offloading approach and Wales gave a glimpse of that with Justin Tipuric's length of the field score at Twickenham, hot favourite to win try of the Six Nations.

But despite flashes of promise they were outplayed by the Irish, French and English, with Pivac stressing the importance of retaining a bit of pragmatism.

He is confident that Wales will get the balance as they continued to adapt after the trophy-laden but at times attritional 12-year reign of Gatland.

South Wales Argus:

"They have gone from a style of rugby which was pretty black and white, one that the boys were used to," said Pivac.

"Some of them have got new roles now and it's about getting that balance right. Going from one extreme to the other, we are probably somewhere in the middle (at the moment).

"It does take a bit of time and Alun Wyn said at the start don't expect it to happen overnight and there will be some ups and some downs. That's pretty much what has happened in this competition. "Clearly we are disappointed with the French game and getting back into the English game and then having that 15-minute period where we let it slip away again.

"That's the grey area I'm talking about with the players. Do we move the ball here? Do we go for field position?

"That will come in time but we feel the players are happy and they're enjoying the training sessions, the way we're trying to play the game, and they can see it building.

"They know we're a couple of passes or good decisions away from winning those close Test matches.

"Moving forward that will put us in good stead for when we play the best teams in the world. You've got to do that to win a Rugby World Cup."

Pivac won the PRO12 title with the Scarlets at the Aviva Stadium when the west Walians dismantled Munster with their high-octane style.

The new Wales boss pinpointed Tomos Williams' try in the loss to the Irish as evidence of the type of rugby he is hoping to play at Test level.

South Wales Argus:

"We built multiple phases and used the width of the pitch," he said. "Alun Wyn Jones in the wide channels getting an offload away and Dan Biggar gets an offload away and we score.

"That is a lot of the work we are doing behind the scenes – having the skillset to offload in the tackle for some of the guys who haven't been in that role before.

"Alun Wyn is enjoying that role because he is an athletic player rather than being out in the middle of the park getting belted all day long.

"Also in the French game there were some great passages of play, even the passage of play at the end of the game when we were going from inside our 22 and got all the way up to their 22, not quite finishing it off.

"We want to be able to play from anywhere if we have to, but also getting that balance right."

"We want to be able to play from anywhere if we have to, but also getting that balance right.

"And the try after half-time (at England) – the support play and the timing of the pass. That was training field stuff, three v twos, two v ones and putting guys away."