Italy 16 Wales 24:IT MIGHT seem churlish to complain about a precious away win, so let's not. Wales are in need of some tub-thumping brilliance to inspire those famous voices. They are not getting it, or if they are it is brilliance of a far too ephemeral kind.
“Ireland struggled here a few weeks ago,” said their coach, Warren Gatland, “and this game has been a real banana skin for us in the past.”
Wales are working their way back and they will not be rushed. An eight-point win in Rome will do nicely. With two wins out of three, Wales are well-placed to force England to win at least one of their two remaining games.
“We can definitely win the title. That is two wins on the trot and we have a home game against Ireland and then we round it off with a huge match against France in Paris,” said Wales captain Matthew Rees.
At times, Wales cut through Italy as much as England had two weeks earlier. James Hook continued to prove he is obscenely gifted. Jamie Roberts is starting to rev up alongside him and the Welsh backrow play a full part in the chorus of excellent loose forwards that are enlivening this championship.
The back three are deadly when they click but they are capable too of wandering off without notice. Shane Williams, at times brilliant, helped set up the second of the two tries they gifted Italy; Lee Byrne and Morgan Stoddart got into a terrible muddle from a nothing chip and coughed up a soft early penalty that helped keep Italy in the game.
That came in a first 15 minutes that was a blur of scoring, Wales emerging 15-8 up, two tries to one. When they were at their most dazzling they also saw fit to be at their most generous. When they were at their most incoherent they fought like madmen to keep Italy out.
Wales are at a strange halfway place, the brilliance of their recent grand slams vying with the brittleness of their last World Cup. Which will out? Two marginal calls ruled out first-half tries for each side.
But you always felt Wales would win. Italy are no more than a halfway side. The search for strike weapons goes on – Tommaso Benvenuti, an exciting young centre, needs to be integrated, and Sergio Parisse needs to be cryogenically frozen for eternity, defrosted only on match days. Alberto Sgarbi, another young centre, offers hope, as does Fabio Semenzato at scrum-half. Zanni and Robert Barbieri are two more fine backrow forwards. But Wales were a different class. If they had been less generous the gap between rich and poor might have yawned.
ITALY: McLean (Treviso); Masi (Racing Metro; Benvenuti, Treviso, 74), Canale (Clermont Auvergne), Sgarbi (Treviso), Mirco Bergamasco (Racing); Burton (Treviso; Orquera, Brive, 65), Semenzato (Treviso, Canavosio, Aironi, 71); Perugini (Aironi; Lo Cicero, Racing, ht), Ghiraldini (Treviso), Castrogiovanni (Leicester, Perugini, 71), Dellape (Racing; Bernabo, Treviso, 53), Geldenhuys (Aironi), Zanni (Treviso), Barbieri (Treviso; Vosawai; Treviso, 72), Parisse (Stade Francais, capt).
WALES: Byrne (Ospreys); Stoddart (Scarlets), Hook (Ospreys), Roberts (Cardiff Blues), Williams (Ospreys); S Jones (Scarlets), Phillips (Ospreys); James (Ospreys), Rees (Scarlets, capt; Hibbard, Ospreys, 77), Mitchell (Ospreys), B Davies (Blues), AW Jones (Ospreys), Lydiate (Newport Gwent Dragons), Warburton (Blues), R Jones (Ospreys).
Referee W Barnes (England)
