Priestland and Roberts played the full 80 minutes as Wales saw off Italy in their RBS 6 Nations opener in Cardiff, with the pair setting up Scott Williams’ 38th-minute try with a midfield link up that saw the latter bust through Alberto Sgarbi’s tackle.
But although Wales’ got their search for a record-breaking third successive title up and running courtesy of a 23-15 victory over the Azzurri, Priestland and Roberts reckon more of the same won’t be good enough to avoid defeat in Dublin.
“We didn’t really click after the break,” said Priestland, after Italy fought back from 17-3 down at half time. “We gave away two soft tries – one of which I was at fault for – and we can’t give those sort of gifts in the games coming up.
“We were guilty of going a bit too lateral and pushing ourselves on to the touchlines. We need to improve to get anything out in Dublin.
“It’s going to be difficult in Ireland post the Lions tour, especially with how well the Welsh boys did out in Australia. We are going to have to be at our very best to get anything out there.”
Italy scored two second-half tries on Saturday, with man of the match Michele Campagnaro winning the race to a kick ahead early on, before picking off Leigh Halfpenny’s pass on the Italian 10-metre line with 11 minutes left.
The second of those scores pegged Wales back to within five points despite the fact that Alex Cuthbert had given the champions a dream start with a try after just three minutes and Roberts admits Wales were their own worst enemy at times.
“We made it hard for ourselves with those two tries that Italy scored, one was an interception and the other was a turnover. We’ve got to tidy up those mistakes in our game and lift it against Ireland next week,” added Roberts.
“We built up the phases and made some good yards but then we had some silly turn overs or kicked the ball away. We need to look at ourselves in training this week and cut out the errors.”
