Here’s the match report:
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👊 SEREN Y GÊM
— Welsh Rugby Union 🏴 (@WelshRugbyUnion) March 11, 2023
What a performance from Rhys Webb!#WelshRugby | #GuinnessSixNations pic.twitter.com/WLOCVqGH3P
That was only Wales’s fourth win in their last 16 Tests. Next up in their final game … France in Paris.
I’m jumping across to cover England vs France. Why not join me there?
FULL TIME! Italy 17 - 29 Wales
PEEEP! Wales get their first win of the tournament!
80 mins. Italy have a lineout on halfway to attempt to do something. That something is throwing it to Tipuric who slaps the ball away and Tomos Williams boots it out.
79 mins. Ken Owens chucks a lineout not straight. Meh.
77 mins. The game is tum-te-tumming and ho-humming to a disappointing conclusion for the home side.
75 mins. Yet more phases from Italy in the Wales 22, and further terrible passes combined with poor handling. Same old story, regardless of whatever spanking new narrative the team is telling.
73 mins. It’s Zuliani again, this time rampaging on a crash ball line, that sets up another Italy attack in the 22, but the final breakdown is imprecise from the Azzuri and the attack halts. I have to say it looked like everyone in Wales was offside in the scramble there; no matter, though, as next tackle has Wales penalised for a neck roll.
71 mins. Rees-Zammit has a run, but Manuel Zuliani clamps on to win a turnover pen. The Italian has been a real handful since he’s come on. For all his pace, Rees-Zammit does make some poor decisions, like taking contact there when Dyer was an option.
TRY! Italy 17 - 29 Wales (Juan Ignacio Brex)
67 mins. Meanwhile, back at the rugby with the ball in play, Italy go from a scrum in the Wales 22. Bruno arcs off his wing to run and pop the ball to Brex who has an easy finish from a few metres.
Allan converts.
Updated
64 mins. Wales are offside and after the ref’s whistle, Fusco grabs Grady by the scruff of the neck and chucks him around a bit. Grady, to his credit, just impassively absorbs this while Fusco goes full scrappy-doo.
This is what happens when your Captain starts losing it, as previously mentioned.
61 mins. Liam Williams and Fusco go up for the same ball. The Italian is first to it, but there’s a clash in the air that the ref rules was a fair contest.
Italy captain Lamaro is not happy with that and is chirping very loudly his displeasure. In fact, he’s been at that this entire half and it’s becoming increasingly tedious.
Liam Williams is off for George North.
Lots of subs
Edoardo Iachizzi, Luca Morisi and Alessandro Fusco are on for Niccolo Cannone, Tommaso Menoncello and Stephen Varney
For Wales, Tommy Reffell comes on for Jac Morgan.
59 mins. Some possession for both sides, none of which comes to much before the ball finally leaves the field via Tomos Williams’s boot. Italy will have a lineout just in the Wales half.
55 mins. After a decent few minutes leading up to the Wales score, Italy are now back in full ball-dropping uncertainty mode, the latest being a boilerplate midfield pass being put down by Menoncello.
Updated
Louis Rees-Zammit comes on for Josh Adams.
Tomas Francis is off for Dillon Lewis.
Tomos Williams replaces Rhys Webb.
Updated
TRY! Italy 10 - 29 Wales (Taulupe Faletau)
50 mins. Rhys Webb has a trademark step and snipe from a ruck thirty metres out that sets him free and running onto Allan. He calmly draws the fullback in and pops the ball right to Faletau who canters under the posts.
Williams converts.
Updated
48 mins. Wales have a lovely platfrom from a scrum in the Wales 22, but it’s wasted as Hawkins’ attempted grubber is poor and allow Allan to grab it and boot clear.
Wyn Jones has had to go off, replaced by Gareth Thomas
YELLOW CARD! Pierre Bruno
44 mins. Straight from the restart, Italy stack the left side and are nearly free and clear again but for some outstanding scramble and hold defence from Faletau. The Azzuri have decided it’s time to up the pace, clearly.
In the midst of it all, Bruno carries the ball in and leads with his forearm pretty much into Wyn Jones’s throat. The ref thinks it was chest first then slid up, but he’s wrong, as TMO Joy Neville points out. The ref is leaning towards red as it’s direct to the windpipe before Asst Ref, Karl Dickson, wades in to say it was a push away rather than a strike, ergo it should still be yellow. Ref agrees.
That was a bit of a mess; upshot of which Bruno is off for 10.
TRY! Italy 10 - 22 Wales (Sebastian Negri)
42 mins. Italy are straight on the task of pulling this game back into their grasp, with Menoncello leading the charge with a huge carry in midfield that bumps off three tackles, including two very poor efforts at the start. A few phases later, Allan chips over the top of the rush defence for Negri to gather and score.
Allan converts.
Updated
SECOND HALF!
Owen Williams punts the game back to life, with Italy facing a long climb.
HALF TIME! Italy 3 - 22 Wales
PEEEEEEP! That’s the last act of this half.
40 mins. Italy maul it again, and Wales are penalised for hands in the ruck. On the advantage Garbisi creams a cross kick towards Bruno, but Liam Williams is first to it and the Italy winger is penalised for taking him out in the air.
39 mins. A catch and drive from Italy leads to a penalty against Daf Jenkins, and when Brex drops the ball (again) on the advantage, Garbisi kicks for the corner once more.
Updated
38 mins. There will be an Italy lineout after Ken Owens is a little lazy rolling away in the tackle
YELLOW CARD! Lorenzo Cannone
35 mins. The Number 8 skulks off for 10 minutes.
PENALTY TRY! Italy 3 - 22 Wales
34 mins. Wales have a kickable penalty after Italy struggle to contain a rolling maul and pull it down. However, the posts are spurned and they go for the corner, catch it and rumble it over with another purposeful maul. They are over the line in a heap, but the ball isn’t grounded.
However, the maul went down because Lorenzo Cannone performed one of the most obvious collapses you will ever see and a penalty try is given!
Updated
31 mins. Italy have a few more phases around halfway, but the law of diminishing returns sets in the longer it goes on until they are penalised for crossing, as it ends up confusing even themselves.
MISSED PENALTY! Italy 3 - 15 Wales (Owen Williams)
27 mins. On their next possession, Wales have a penalty just in the Italy half that Williams has a shy at from distance. It has the legs, but drifts left.
Ruzza should absolutely have passed the ball there, and like the Allan poor pass a few mins earlier, these are all lost opportunities.
25 mins. Another show and go in the 13 channel, this time from Garbisi, puts Italy in behind Wales. He feeds Padovani on the scissor and a series of ambitious offloads from the tackles eventually find Ruzza who flies for the line when a pass was on and is stopped just short. Brex grabs it, dives over, and has it down, but….. the TMO has a look and he dropped it!
NO TRY!
23 mins. Italy start to languidly float the ball about in the Wales half and it all looks too slow until a show and go from Allan sees him fly in behind the red tacklers. He’s into the 22 and Varney is screaming for it on the inside, but the pass to find him is a horror – too high and just behind him. Varney manages to grab it, though, and the forwards take it on and up to the line before Liam Williams clamps on an isolated runner to win a relieving penalty for the visitors.
TRY! Italy 3 - 15 Wales (Liam Williams)
17 mins. Allan spills the ball in the tackle after Italy once again try to run out of their own 22. Faletau pounces on it, goes on a run and throws a pretty awful pass that misses everyone, bounces and finally reaches Williams on the right touchline. It was one of those passes that was so terrible it took out four defenders and turned into a cracker. Williams legs it towards the line and a combination of his stepping and strength gets him over the line.
Credit to Wales for reacting, but that was a shambles from Italy.
Owen Williams missed the two points.
Updated
PENALTY! Italy 3 - 10 Wales (Tommaso Allan)
15 mins. Wales’s scrum is pushed around like a butcher’s block full of offal, and the inevitable front-row pop up is penalised when Francis does it.
Allan puts his side on the board
13 mins. Italy have their first platform of note in the game from a lineout on the Wales 22. The forwards catch it and it’s released to a trademark pattern in the backs that gets them outside the narrow Wales defence, but the final pass is floated above Padovani’s head and into touch.
Wales probably had it covered with their scramble defence, but it’s a worry for them how easy the Azzuri worked that
Updated
TRY! Italy 0 - 10 Wales (Rio Dyer)
9 mins. From the scrum after an Italy unforced handing error the ball moves to the left touchline via a few phases. From the breakdown tight to the sideline, Webb realises there’s not much on and chips a speculatinve kick into the corner that Dyer chases, the bounce keeps it in and avoids Padovani and Allan, allowing the Wales winger to yoink it and run in.
Owen Williams converts.
Updated
7 mins. There are two Italys when it comes to attack: the first is the often undefendable dynamo that turned out vs France and Ireland; the other being the maladroit hand-like-feet fest at Twickenham. So far today the latter has turned up. Crowley will be hoping there’s enough time to settle in and correct this.
PENALTY! Italy 0 - 3 Wales (Owen Williams)
5 mins. Italy are too keen in defence and drift offside which gives Williams the chance to put his side in front from the tee.
4 mins. First sign of Wales’s kicking intent puts Allan under pressure and he spills it backwards. Garbisi decides this is not the time for their usual five phases in their own 22 and boots to touch early to clear.
2 mins. Bit of possession for both sides before Wales work it left to Liam Williams who is absolutely levelled (legally) by Menoncello covering across. The fullback was so shocked he forgot to let go of the ball on the ground.
Kick Off!
Ref Damon Murphy (Australia) toots on his reprimand flute and Wales receive a deep kick off from Garbisi
The teams are out on the Rome grass to settle in for the anthems and sense of impending hope/doom.
Updated
“Good afternoon!” yelps Bill Preston into my inbox (no, not that one)
“Wales haven’t had the best of times of late, and haven’t been producing the thrilling heroics one might have expected of them.
Italy are very much on an upward trajectory. No longer the matches in the tournament I’m happy to miss, at home today I think they are going to get a proper stomp on and roll Wales over.
Italy will win by five points.”
More reading..
Warren Gatland is well aware of Italy’s abilities, read more about what he had to say here.
Are Italy right to be favourites? What chance Wales moving forward after the past few weeks? I would like detailed answers sent by email or on Twitter
TEAMS
Italy are without Ange Capuozzo, a loss to both them and people who love rugby, and Crowley has taken the option of moving Tommy Allan to fullback as replacement. Not exactly a barnstorming prospect, but Allan’s kicking game could offer some good option from the inevitable bombardment that’s coming from the air today. Paolo Garbisi has recovered from his late knock vs Ireland to keep the 10 shirt.
Gatland shuffles the deck again with six changes from the side beaten by England, most notable being Rio Dyer returning on the wing for Louis Rees-Zammit, and Daf Jenkins ousting Alun Wyn Jones from the team and squad entirely. Liam Williams also retunrs at fullback for Leigh Halfpenny.
Italy: Tommaso Allan, Edoardo Padovani, Juan Ignacio Brex, Tommaso Menoncello, Pierre Bruno; Paolo Garbisi, Stephen Varney; Danilo Fischetti, Giacomo Nicotera, Simone Ferrari, Niccolò Cannone, Federico Ruzza, Sebastian Negri, Michele Lamaro, Lorenzo Cannone.
Replacements: Luca Bigi, Federico Zani, Marco Riccioni, Edoardo Iachizzi, Giovanni Pettinelli, Manuel Zuliani, Alessandro Fusco, Luca Morisi
Wales: Liam Williams, Josh Adams, Mason Grady, Joe Hawkins, Rio Dyer; Owen Williams, Rhys Webb; Wyn Jones, Ken Owens (captain), Tomas Francis, Adam Beard, Dafydd Jenkins, Jac Morgan, Justin Tipuric, Taulupe Faletau
Replacements: Scott Baldwin, Gareth Thomas, Dillion Lewis, Rhys Davies, Tommy Reffell, Tomos Williams, George North, Louis Rees-Zammit
Preamble
Round four. Rome. Ready or not.
Not since Antonio Carluccio faced Gwynfor Parry, owner of an Aberdare roadside butty van, in the opening round of the 1995 European Ragu Championship has Italy found themselves in such a favoured position coming into a match. And with some justification.
Kieran Crowley’s side have pushed everyone close so far, playing a brand of high tempo, low conservatism rugby that troubles all defences and delivers points. The other side of the equation has caused them trouble, however, with possession for their opposition too often resulting in the Azzuri conceding. Where this may be different today is Wales so far in this tournament have looked about as likely to score as a drunk throwing wrong-handed at a dartboard.
Added to this, it is increasingly clear that Warren Gatland is using this tournament as something of a fact finding mission before fully implementing his Warrenball 2.0 vision. Lots of changes each week as he seeks to make he best of players too old, too young or struggling for form, means he must have a look and decide quickly who gets to stay before the real work begins in the World Cup camp. That’s not to say he’ll be satisfied with a loss here, but some Welsh observers rending their garments would do well to consider this context.
Italy captain Michele Lamaro has made it very clear recently that he’s fed up of positive reviews without the results following. This is the one game he and the squad know can change that.
