Following in the footsteps of Warren Gatland is going to be a tough act for Wayne Pivac to follow, but it's a decent enough start.
Gatland, remember, was appointed followed a calamitous World Cup in 2007 and the only way was up.
Pivac, by contrast, has come in on the back of a Grand Slam and the semi-finals of the World Cup. Thus expectations are far higher.
The Welsh public has become so accustomed to success they will expect Pivac to carry on where Gatland left off.
Gatland did it his way, unashamedly so at times with his Warrenball style of play, but you could see against the Barbarians the wider type of attacking game Pivac wants to employ.
I hope Pivac saying he’s looking to broaden Wales’ horizons doesn’t become a millstone around his neck. You have to possess the players capable of playing expansive, heads up and off the cuff rugby.
It was a nice starter for the new-look Wales against the Barbarians with back-row forwards Justin Tipuric and Aaron Wainwright spending a lot of time lurking out wide.
Facing a scratch side like the Barbarians in an uncapped match is much different to a normal Test but it allows you to make a declaration of intent.
Wales certainly did that with hooker Ken Owens and winger Josh Adams getting two tries apiece.
Adams knows his way to the line and looks for work while I was again impressed with scrum-half Tomos Williams.
It was a rare start for him at No.9 ahead of Gareth Davies but he was extremely good at getting the ball away quickly from the breakdown, which you have to do to play wide.
Jarrod Evans at outside-half made more of his opportunity than he did in his 40 minutes against Ireland during the World Cup warm-up.
Prop Wyn Jones was the official man of the match and shone in the loose with his handling, which suggested to me that Rob Evans will have his work cut out to get back in at loosehead.
What can you say about young Wainwright? He demonstrated he can play anywhere in the back-row with a terrific performance at No.8.
If Welsh rugby’s forgotten man Taulupe Faletau gets himself fit and returns to the fold at the back of the scrum it will be interesting to see whether Wainwright is picked at blindside flanker, openside or among the substitutes.
Debut-maker Johnny McNicholl went well on his wing and off it because he’s such a natural rugby player who roamed looking for work.
He seemed perfectly at home in the biggest arena and put down a marker to start in the Six Nations against Italy next February.
The match did get a bit scrappy in the second half after the two sides made substitutions and Pivac may have been concerned the Barbarians were still in it towards the end, forcing Wales to kick a penalty through Leigh Halfpenny to make the result secure and get his reign off to a winning start.
It was the first step for Pivac and I’m sure he will be quite pleased with the way it went with an entertaining 43-33 success.
There was plenty to enthuse about and for the new coaches to build on with Wales already having the solid foundations put in by Gatland.
I noticed Wales used the rolling maul more than they did during the previous regime and perhaps that was down to forwards guru Jonathan Humphreys.
But perhaps the most important thing of all was the squad seemed to buy into the Pivac way, which is half the battle for a new coach!
