WAYNE Pivac may have given Bryon Hayward the boot but the Wales boss believes his former defence chief has the coaching qualities to bounce back.

The 51-year-old from Blaina's spell in the national set-up ended on Sunday, just a year after he had succeeded Shaun Edwards.

Pivac denied Hayward has been made a scapegoat after a run of five successive Test defeats and Wales' worst Six Nations campaign for 13 years.

The New Zealander, addressing reports of player power, also insisted that it was his call to make the change.

"Byron is like anybody – he's disappointed has obviously been disappointed with some of our performances," said Pivac.

"He's a conscientious hard worker and he's put his heart and soul into it. It's just things haven't gone as I or he would have liked.

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"It was a tough conversion, but he is a very honest man and he's reflected on it and is wishing the team all the very best.

"I know he means that and he'll be following us, supporting us, and helping us in the background when required."

Hayward, a former fly-half and full-back, worked as a coach with the Dragons academy and Wales Under-20s before enjoying success with the Scarlets for five years as part of Pivac's team.

The west Walians were known for their dashing attacking play yet that was underpinned by strong defensive work, especially at the breakdown.

"It's a different level of the game, but if you look back at the PRO14, or PRO12 as it was, the Scarlets were the first team to win an away semi-final in the history of the competition," said Pivac.

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"That was done with 14 men against Leinster away. It was defence which got us into that semi-final and defence which allowed us to score long-range tries to win.

"Byron has done some very, very good things with the Scarlets and teams I've been involved in for a long period of time.

"I've no doubt he's a very good coach, it just hasn't worked out on this occasion, in this competition, and where we want to be in 2023 is in a different place."

Wales face Ireland in Dublin on Friday in their Autumn Nations Cup opener.

Pivac names his team on Wednesday with Dragons back row forward Ross Moriarty back in training after missing the losses to France and Scotland with an ankle injury.