Robin McBryde admits Wales are on a revenge mission to beat Italy for a place in the World Cup quarter-finals.
Tomorrow’s winner-takes-all clash in Canberra will decide who joins expected Pool D winners New Zealand in the last eight of the tournament.
But as if the stakes were not high enough already, Llanelli hooker McBryde admits the memories of Wales’ shock Six Nations defeat in Rome last February, which he missed through injury, still hurts the squad even now.
“There is no doubt that for those boys who were involved in that game, revenge is in the air,” he said.
“The boys were scarred by that experience but what better place to pay them back that at the World Cup.
“I remember watching the game and it was a bitter pill to swallow. We just didn’t recover for the rest of the Six Nations Championship after that defeat.
“I’m sure Italy will go into this game full of confidence that they can do it again but we have been working all week on areas to attack and the feeling is good in the camp.”
Just as McBryde was a spectator for the Rome defeat, he was again on the sidelines for last week’s shaky pool victory over Tonga after being left out of the match-day 22 squad and he admits it was another uncomfortable 80 minutes viewing.
“It was a frustrating game to watch and I’m sure it was even more so to play in,” said the 33-year-old British Lion.
“I was trying to commentate on the game for radio at the time but it was all I could do to cross my fingers like everyone else during the last few minutes.
“It was frustating because we dominated the game for long periods but we gave them too many opportunities to run the ball back at us and allowed them to get back in.
“But we have also been studying Italy’s last game and we were encouraged by what the Canadians did to them. They fronted up and caused them problems and now it’s up to us to do the same.”
McBryde returns to form an all new Wales front-row amid ten changes to the side that struggled against Tonga. He packs down in between Neath-Swansea Ospreys pair Adam and Duncan Jones while Brent Cockbain replaces clubmate Robert Sidoli and Martyn Williams returns after coming off the bench to score a crucial try and drop goal in that last game.
Behind the scrum, scrum-half Dwayne Peel gets in ahead of Gareth Cooper who scored against both Canada and Tonga. Ceri Sweeney takes the number ten jersey from Stephen Jones who is struggling both with form and a dead leg while Gareth Thomas, Kevin Morgan and fit again Sonny Parker all return.
Wales: Kevin Morgan; Mark Jones, Sonny Parker, Iestyn Harris, Gareth Thomas; Ceri Sweeney, Dwayne Peel; Duncan Jones, Robin McBryde, Adam Jones, Brent Cockbain, Gareth Llewellyn, Dafydd Jones, Martyn Williams, Colin Charvis (Captain)
Replacements: Mefin Davies, Gethin Jenkins, Robert Sidoli, Jonathan Thomas, Gareth Cooper, Stephen Jones, Rhys Williams
Italy – Gonzalo Canale; Nicola Mazzucato, Christian Stoica, Andrea Masi, Denis Dallan; Rima Wakarua, Alessandro Troncon (captain); Andrea Lo Cicero, Fabio Ongaro, Leandro Castrogiovanni; Carlo Checchinato, Santiago Dellape; Andrea De Rossi, Aaron Persico, Sergio Parisse.
Replacements – Carlo Festuccia, Salvatore Perugini, Matthew Phillips, Scott Palmer, Christian Bezzi, Mauro Bergamasco, Francesco Mazzariol.
