So where does Welsh rugby go from here?
I wish I could be more positive, but sadly I can't be. There are so many things wrong there is no one single answer to the various issues.
I have no doubt, after such a disastrous Six Nations and our regions really struggling, the Welsh Rugby Union will commission a report into what's gone so badly wrong. But we've been here before and I'm far from convinced these findings don't tend to just be put away in a filing cabinet, gathering dust.
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Until the next time, probably. We've been here before.
I remember losing 23-3 to New Zealand at the Arms Park back in 1980. There was uproar that we could be beaten at home by 20 points. A report was commissioned - and I have absolutely no idea where it ended up.
Remember, this was a New Zealand team containing greats like Dave Loveridge, Graham Mourie, Stu Wilson, Murray Mexted, Andy Haden and Andy Dalton. We're hardly talking an Italian side that had lost 36 games in a row, but such are the emotions that go with Welsh rugby that an inquest was launched back then too.
How could we lose so heavily just two years after winning the Grand Slam, part of continued Welsh success during the 1970s?
Eight years after that New Zealand game, a Wales team containing Jonathan Davies and Robert Jones among others, lost 15-9 to Romania in Cardiff. Another crossroads, another report.
At the turn of the century, after yet more woe in terms of results, we had a further report, this one commissioned by Sir Tasker Watkin, an esteemed figure in rugby and also within the judiciary. He had Gerald Davies on the panel with him, they went up and down the country canvassing views and after two years of painstaking work recommended an overhaul of the WRU.
It didn't get the required majority to pass. Indeed, it was supposedly the fourth time in 12 years that a report into the running of the Welsh game had been drawn up - and three of them didn't even go to the vote of clubs. I'm not even counting the one after our loss to New Zealand here, either.
So the point I'm making is that a hoo-hah about Welsh rugby supposedly reaching its lowest point, and demands for change, are nothing new. It's too early to say what will happen this time, but if it mirrors what occurred previously then my guess is probably very little.
But something clearly has to change somewhere, which brings us to the head coach. Losing at home to Italy is simply not acceptable and Wayne Pivac knows that as well as anybody.
Trouble is, replacing him this close to a World Cup would cause issues of its own, with a new man at the helm needing to quickly learn about the players and also deal with the hardships of a three-Test tour to South Africa this summer. With the power of the Springboks, their impeccable set-piece and backs who can create these days, that is going to be a huge ask. Whoever is in charge.
If Pivac stays, does he need to make significant changes to his coaching staff? When defence coach Byron Hayward fell on his sword, I remember writing in this column that the wrong member of the backroom team had gone. That if anyone was to be the fall guy, there was an argument for saying forwards coach Jonathan Humphreys should have been that man, given Wales' struggles in the pack.
Humphreys is still there - and we still have our problems in the lineout. Throws going wrong, over-complicating matters. But again, I don't see any change there at this stage.
So if there's not to be any change at the top of the WRU, or with the coach, or with his backroom team, the only thing that can alter is Pivac's own mindset. And that is an absolute must, or else I fear we're heading towards catastrophe in France at next year's World Cup.
I know we won the Six Nations last year, but there were question marks over that success because we beat teams who were down to 14 men, matches I've no doubts we would otherwise have lost. I just hope Pivac looks at what has just happened this time, assesses his own selection and tactics, and draws a line in the sand. One from which Wales are able to move on.
For me, Pivac was extraordinarily naive in how he approached the Italy game. It's wonderful to see Alun Wyn Jones win 150 caps, but I warned beforehand, thus I'm saying nothing with hindsight, that he wouldn't be ready for international rugby after so many months out injured and with absolutely no Ospreys comeback game time behind him.
Even against a team as ordinary as Italy, it was obvious to me Alun Wyn wasn't fit enough, or match sharp enough. Worse still, Will Rowlands had been our best player in the tournament up to that point. So why make that change? It just didn't make any sense whatsoever.
Nor did Wales' tactics. The way you beat Italy - and it happened 36 times on the trot previously - is to take the points early on, build scoreboard pressure, then when their heads drop, or they are forced to chase the game, you run in the tries. You earn the right to win the game first, then you focus on the quality of the win.
Yet Dan Biggar kept spurning the chance of kicks at goal, the opportunity to build that scoreboard pressure, and opted to go for the corner instead. Again, it made no sense to me. It wasn't the way to build a foundation for victory, one which, at the very least, would have taken some of the heat off Pivac.
As it is, his selection and tactics mean he has brought the pressure upon himself. There is no way one earth Warren Gatland would have let Wales adopt this approach. He's a pragmatist, would have made sure of victory first, and only opened up in the closing quarter.
Should Wayne Pivac be replaced as Wales boss? Have your say here.
Look, it's not as if Wales have a great driving lineout anyway, is it. Teams like New Zealand, South Africa, plus Ireland and England in the past, have proven stats to suggest when they kick for the corner it is the right thing to do. They get seven pointers as a result. I don't see a driving lineout as one of our strengths. Surely Pivac and Biggar can see this, too? Italy certainly did, given the comfortable way they were able to defend.
I repeat, this has to be a reality check for Pivac and he needs to learn from it moving forward. Gatland came in for a lot of flak for sticking by Warrenball, not least from yours truly, but at least he delivered success with the approach.
Wales winning games. That, more than anything, is what the Welsh public want to see. Gatland was a pragmatist, the players knew exactly what was required, yet I see far too much inconsistency in selection under Pivac.
We could see we were heading in the right direction under Gatland, but four defeats in five under Pivac indicate the exact opposite. And I don't get it because, far from what some doom and gloom merchants would have you believe, there is some genuine talent in this Welsh team. They just need to be given the opportunity to flourish and that comes down to the coaching team.
Josh Adams' superb solo try is a case in point which covers each of the above. He created that score entirely by himself, demonstrated his huge ability in that moment, but wouldn't it be even better for Wales to produce backs moves under Stephen Jones and make the most of try threats like Adams, Liam Williams and Louis Rees-Zammit? The lack of creativity really worries, but there is a time and a place.
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People love flowing rugby from the start, but build the early scoreboard pressure and Adams and Rees-Zammit could have run riot against the Italians in the final 20 minutes. With a hard professional hat on, and taking out the romance and emotion, that to me was so obviously the game plan to adopt. But Wales didn't do it and paid the price.
Pivac was a poor appointment, I feel. The WRU hierarchy who went for him should have looked much further afield, as was the case when previous regimes went for Gatland, Graham Henry and Steve Hansen.
Yes Pivac did well with the Scarlets, but as he has discovered there's a world of difference between that and the Wales national team. But in reality I can't see any change of coach just yet, so I hope he changes. His own mindset, and ours as well.
I just hope we're not heading back to the bad old days under him with a World Cup disaster around the corner. Sadly, I'm not convinced we aren't - much as I'd really like to be positive.
