Italy 15 Wales 20: GAVIN HENSON likes to entertain and, one has to assume, be entertained, so perhaps it should come as no surprise that he stormed off the field the moment the final whistle sounded after this unconvincing win for Wales in Rome.
Afterwards he claimed he was so furious he needed to sit in the changing-room on his own for five minutes to cool down, rendering superfluous the need to observe such niceties as shaking hands with team-mates and opponents or acknowledging the efforts of a travelling support who did their best to match the raucous contributions of the home fans.
The source of Henson’s discontent? He felt he should have been given the ball when Wales were awarded a penalty just inside the Italy half with time almost up so that he might belt it into row Z.
As it was, the ball was handed to Stephen Jones for a kick at goal right on the edge of his range, and the replacement outhalf’s shot fell well short, granting Italy one last chance to snatch what at that point seemed an unlikely result.
Henson may or may not have had a point – securing the win was crucial, but Wales also needed to boost their points difference to maximise their chances of snatching the title from Ireland in Cardiff on Saturday.
All the same, his reaction made Danny Cipriani’s refusal to shake the hand of Mike Catt after a game the previous weekend seem positively Socratic in its dignity and wisdom.
Had Henson been given the ball for that kick, it would have doubled the number of times his team-mates had passed it to him in the match, and he confessed that he was also somewhat riled by this fact. His partner at outside centre, Jamie Roberts, had gone one better and received two passes all game.
“It was a very strange one,” said Roberts. “I didn’t seem to get the ball in my hands at all. It’s hard as a backline to play off the back foot – it’s impossible really.”
And Wales were very much on the back foot – in the scrum, at the tackle and under the high ball.
Sergio Parisse led the Italian fury with an all-round display of remarkable excellence, and he was ably supported by so many, with perhaps the recalled Paul Griffen worthy of the next mention: the extravagantly whiskered veteran tortured Wales with his kicking from hand.
Italian aggression was no doubt stoked by the decision of Warren Gatland not only to field almost a second string but to announce the side fully 10 days before the match. It was an astonishing display of disrespect for a full member of the Six Nations, and it almost turned into an astonishing display of negligence.
As it is, two flashes of coherence were all Wales needed – or could muster – each resulting in a decent enough try, the second, by Tom Shanklin, securing the win in the 72nd minute.
Now Wales need to beat Ireland by 13 points to win the championship on Saturday. With a full team here, though, it could have been just a win of any kind.
Guardian Service
ITALY: Marcato (Orquera, 76); Rubini, Canale, Mirco Bergamasco (Quartaroli, 73), Pratichetti; McLean, Griffen (Canavosio, 66); Perugini, Ghiraldini, Nieto (Castrogiovanni, 50), Dellape (Del Fava, 50), Bortolami (Sole, 65), Zanni, Mauro Bergamasco, Parisse (capt).
WALES: Byrne (Shanklin, 69); M Jones, Roberts, Henson, Williams; Hook (S Jones, 76), Phillips; Yapp, Bennett (Rees, 58), R Thomas (Jenkins, 58), Charteris, AW Jones (capt), J Thomas, D Jones, Powell.
Referee: Alan Lewis(Ireland).
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