ITALY v WALES:ITALY ARE nearing the end of their first decade in the Six Nations but there remains little sign of progress. Theirs has been a perennial battle to avoid the wooden spoon and there are reports of stirring against the head coach, Nick Mallett, who in his second year in charge has reached the point when his employers usually reach for the trigger.
In normal times, a home match against Wales would offer therapeutic value. The Azzurri have twice defeated the men in red at Stadio Flaminio in the last six years and they drew in Cardiff in 2006, but Wales, whose form has oscillated this decade, are on one of their highs.
Such is Italy’s perceived lack of a threat outside overt hostility in the opening quarter of matches that the Wales head coach, Warren Gatland, made 10 changes from the side that lost in Paris last month, and admitted he would have been more cautious against stronger opponents.
Italy, mired in their own problems, have not reacted indignantly to facing a largely reserve side. They have bunkered down after a newspaper report claimed that a group of players had written to the Italian Rugby Federation complaining about Mallett and the South African’s methods; the promise shown against Australia last November dissipated after his bizarre decision to play a flanker, Mauro Bergamasco, at scrumhalf against England.
“It is a complete lie; no one has written anything against Mallett,” said the Italy prop, Salvatore Perugini. “The group is united. We know we are inferior to Wales and should not be offended by it. A problem is that the Italian media lack reality and create false expectations. Wales have every right to make several changes, but they have to face our willingness. Winning is not impossible.”
Mallett also dismissed the reports. “If you are talking about speculation that the captain is not following the coach, or that the players are not following the captain, this is absolutely not true.
“When you lose games, obviously people are looking for an excuse or a reason. Sometimes, the reason is just that we’ve made mistakes and were not good enough.”
Wales have struggled to create this year, breaking Scotland and England only when they had a man advantage, but the return of James Hook and Gavin Henson should sharpen them in broken play.
“We must not get caught up in the carnival atmosphere,” said Gatland yesterday.
“The sun may be out, but we are here for the rugby, not the sightseeing. Wales lost this fixture two years ago and we have a job to do. We know we need to improve our points difference, but the priority is to get a result and that means meeting Italy’s physical challenge from the start.”
Mallett added: “When you play a team like Wales who play at a high pace with skilful players who get the ball out quickly, our repositioning, especially on defence, is going to be very important.
REPLACEMENTS
ITALY:F Sbaraglini (Benetton Treviso), M Castrogiovanni (Leicester), CA Del Fava (Ulster), J Sole (Viadana), P Canavosio (Viadana), L Orquera (Brive), R Quartaroli (Cariparma).
WALES:M Rees (Scarlets), G Jenkins (Cardiff Blues), B Davies (Cardiff Blues), R Jones (Ospreys), W Fury (London Irish), S Jones (Scarlets), T Shanklin (Cardiff Blues).
Referee:Alan Lewis (Ireland). Touch Judges:Dave Pearson (England), David Changleng (Scotland). TMO:Geoff Warren (England)
