Roughly 11,400 miles and 13 hours of time difference separate Cardiff and the Auckland suburb of Takapuna in New Zealand.

Yet, on Saturday, little of that mattered.

As new head coach Wayne Pivac took charge of Wales for the very first time against the Barbarians at the Principality Stadium, watching on the other side of the world in the middle of the New Zealand night were his sons, Matthew and Bradley.

Few are better placed to give insight into Pivac than those two.

Perhaps that's why the questions are seemingly inescapable - especially this week.

"A lot of Brad's day and my own is spent fielding questions about rugby!" explains Matthew.

"Just yesterday with my job, I had a meeting and someone asked if I was related to Wayne Pivac by any chance?" adds Bradley.

"And it's that moment that you wonder should you say yes or no? You never know if it's going to be a good or bad response!"

Of course, before Pivac was a rugby coach, he was a police officer in the New Zealand police force.

Wayne Pivac with his two sons, Bradley and Matthew

If being the son of a rugby coach leaves you questioning whether you should divulge your family connections for want of some criticism from a punter, being the son of a former cop is probably similar.

But his time in the police clearly left a lasting impression on himself and his two sons.

During his years as a cop, Pivac senior really did experience the darker side of life, previously revealing: "I had some tough jobs in the police. I carried a body bag and had to pick up pieces of a person who had been obliterated in a car crash. I saw some things you don’t normally expect to see, especially at that age."

Once you have been so close to tragedy, once you have knocked on a family's door to tell them their teenage daughter won't be coming home again, dealing with selection decisions and the issues of a rugby coach don't appear quite so difficult.

"I think that probably has all added up to some of the experiences and shaped who he is," says Matthew.

"But he's definitely strong on values and time management.

"So that probably helped teach Brad and I a thing or two. Maybe Brad a little more so than me on time management!

"But it definitely shaped who he is and then transferred into the rugby side of things.

"It probably helped him with people management too. So yeah, it's been interesting for sure and I think definitely some good grounding for him."

Bradley is a little too young to remember his dad working in the force, but Matthew just managed to catch "a couple of years being driven around in the police car". Neither, though, would have seen the aftermath of the more harrowing sides of the job.

They found out about that a little later, with their father inevitably turning it into a learning opportunity, as Bradley explains.

"Growing up, when we, or me in particular, were complaining about something or finding something tough, he'd always sit us down and gave us his two cents and give us an experience from his time in the police that would make us value what we've got and stop worrying about what is going on in our lives.

"He's definitely experienced some things in the police that I don't want to experience but he definitely used those experiences to add those values into us growing up."

Former Wales coach Steve Hansen was another police officer turned rugby coach. In fact, when Pivac was coaching the New Zealand police force team, Hansen was his assistant.

And, on the theme of former Wales coaches, Graham Henry was the man who gave Pivac his break at Auckland and was the soundboard when Pivac was offered the Scarlets job.

But back to Hansen. The recently departed All Blacks coach famously used one of his old police tricks to fish out that Dafydd James had left the team's Vale of Glamorgan base to go home - putting his hand on the bonnet of James' car to check if it was still warm.

Wayne Pivac with son Matthew

Whether Pivac has done that to his players is another matter, but, for Bradley and Matthew, growing up with a police officer as a dad could be a blessing and a curse.

"He always had the old eagle eye out and you couldn't slip anything by him, that's for sure," explains Matthew. "So you learned to try and play the game as best you could, but he was always three or four pages ahead of you in the textbook".

"He was always willing to pick you up and help get you out of a tough spot if you're ever in one - but he also probably knew that you're getting into one before you did.

"So definitely a double-edged sword but I think it paid off for everyone."

So we now know the values Pivac drew from his experiences in the force, but just what is he like as a dad?

"Well, he's more of a best friend than a dad for me," explains Bradley. "We've got similar personalities, which can definitely lead to a few arguments here and there.

"But we get on really, really well. And he's definitely very, very supportive in everything we do.

"He may not understand or agree with something that we have an opinion on straight away, but he's the sort of person that goes away and tries to learn and educate himself to sort of come to the point where we can understand where we're coming from."

What about Matthew's take on his father?

"I think for me on that as well, he's also definitely very encouraging and motivating. He's got his own sort of special, quirky, funny ways of doing things."

"He thinks it's funny!" interrupts Bradley.

"I think it's funny!" comes the quick response from Matthew. "But he'll have a laugh and a joke with you but he's actually getting a serious message and a point across.

"I remember when we were four or five and started playing rugby. Every Saturday we would be in the car on the way to a game and he'd throw about one of his favourite quotes - I'm sure he'll tell you he made it up - but he'd say that pain is only weakness leaving the body.

"He was obviously having a good old laugh, winding as up as young kids but, also at the same time, he was getting you mentally prepared for the game.

"And as a kid, when the inevitable that can occur on the rugby field did happen and we got hurt - and it's a question of how are you going to deal with it - he knew that when the time came, you were sort of anticipating it.

"Beyond that, he's definitely a very people-orientated person. Whether that's immersing himself in the community or being back amongst friends and family when he's back in NZ.

"He loves catching up for a barbecue or heading up to the beach or even having a game of golf, having a good laugh. It's always funny watching him battle past the the ladies tee sometimes."

Wayne Pivac with son Bradley

What perhaps is the one thing that no one else would know about Pivac?

"I'm not really sure what I can say that won't get me taken out of the well!" exclaims Bradley.

Matthew quickly chimes in: "That's a very PC response!

"Tell you what, even though he's a calm person, he is also extremely competitive. Everything that he does, even as a kid growing up, whether it was table tennis or backyard cricket or something like that, he'd always go 110 percent.

"You learnt to come up to speed pretty quick. There was no mercy on the table tennis table."

So when did Matthew start getting the better of his dad at table tennis?

"For me, it was quite young, I'd say six or seven," he boasts.

"Maybe he'd have a different opinion on that one!" interjects Bradley once more.

"Actually yeah, I'd say there were probably a few waterworks shed on my part up until the age of 18 or 19," adds Matthew. "He is pretty good at most things actually.

"Fun fact. He can do most things left or right handed. He's pretty coordinated like that.

"He likes to switch it up and embarrass you with the right hand at tennis sometimes just to make you feel good about yourself."

Anything else we should know about Pivac?

"This is something many won't see, but he's also a very caring and compassionate guy," adds Bradley. "He doesn't just go out of his way to help me and Matthew, but others as well."

"That's something that comes naturally to him," says Matthew. "When we were living in Fiji, there were people literally earning one or two dollars an hour.

"I recall quite vividly we'd be driving along in the car and children would run alongside.

"He'd often slip his hand out the window for a cheeky handshake and in doing so, that kid would end up with an ice cream that he'd just bought in their hand. That would put a good grin on their face.

"Or he'd even give kids kicking teas and things like that after training. There were a few that would quite often follow us around and he would definitely be supportive of them."

Pivac with son Bradley

Given the distance between Takapuna and Cardiff, keeping in touch with their dad has required some digital assistance. Thankfully, Pivac has bought into that side of technology.

"About a year ago, he learned how to take selfies," says Bradley. "So he's all over Facetime now!"

"He loves an emoji as well!" adds Matthew. "It's pretty good with WhatsApp now, you can stay in touch pretty easily."

Come February and the Six Nations, Bradley and Matthew will be travelling over to Wales to see their father, their rugby 'brother' Hadleigh Parkes (the Scarlets centre was dubbed 'son of Wayne' when he first rocked up in Llanelli) and their adopted nation in person.

There's no doubt that when Wales host Italy in Cardiff on February 1, Bradley and Matthew will be wearing red.

The real test comes when Wales travel to New Zealand next summer.

"Oh, well, that's that topic of conversation in the house at the moment, actually," explains Bradley. "I'm certainly certainly going to be wearing my red colours. But it's going to be interesting to see what colours Matt ends up wearing next year."

"I'll probably just pull out the the old double jersey trick," jokes Matthew. "Wear one over the other and whip one off depending on whoever wins.

"But I think dad's probably got off lightly.

"If I didn't injure my shoulder playing rugby a few years ago, I probably would have been in the All Blacks number two jersey myself looking to take him out.

"Thankfully for him, he can sleep easily now!"