The buck stops with Wayne Pivac for Wales' Dublin mess and we're about to find out how good he really is

When a team takes a beating as comprehensive as the one Wales had in Dublin it is easy to be seduced by sage analysis, the kind that digs deeply into every peripheral issue suspected to have had an influence.

In three days of febrile reaction here, the hammering against Ireland has been laid at the door of everyone and everything.

The structure of WRU governance, the standard of the United Rugby Championship, the general malaise brought about by the regional game…. each have been forensically picked apart.

Individuals at fault have ranged from former chief executive Roger Lewis to current chairman Rob Butcher, Paul Ringer (remember the famous Max Boyce song?) and the bloke who sells programmes on the gate at Pontypool Park.

Undoubtedly, the dysfunctional elements of the regions (take your pick of those) and whoever is responsible for the apathy that bedevils the Welsh domestic game carry a modicum of culpability for the thrashing by Ireland.

But not as much culpability as Wayne Pivac and his Wales management team, and their players.

A range of factors presented them with a daunting task on the opening day of the Six Nations – but none excused such a non-entity of a performance.

Pivac made the first mistake that contributed to it on January 18, the day he named his tournament squad.

In a scene-setting interview he chose to highlight the absence of more than 600 caps worth of experience and the disruptive influence of Covid on the game-readiness of a number of players.

Fair comment on either count, but Pivac sent out all the wrong signals in the process.

He gave his players what all players should never be given – an excuse for not being able to produce the goods.

And in concentrating on who wasn’t there the New Zealander