Condemning Italy to their twelfth successive defeat in the Lloyds TSB Six Nations, Wales completed a five-try showing to gain what would ultimately be their only victory in the season’s tournament.
Making a fantastic early start, Craig Morgan notched his first international try after receiving the ball from Andy Marinos, who had made an impressive break; Morgan glimpsed Italy’s out of position fullback and gathered his own chip ahead to touch down. Stephen Jones added the extras to take Wales into a 7-0 lead.
Ramiro Pez got the Italian scoring underway with a penalty but try two came quickly for Wales; Nathan Budgett breaking and sending Dafydd James, denied a try in the clash against France, over the Italian line. Jones once more converted taking Wales into an eleven point lead after ten minutes, adding a penalty soon after to further stretch Wales’s lead.
Italy struck back through No.8 Carlo Checchinato, with Pez slotting over the conversion to narrow the gap once more to one converted score. Jones secured a Welsh penalty but as a number of Welsh errors started to creep into the game with the interval break drawing near, South African born Gert Peens secured a huge penalty from the halfway line. Jones, though, pushed the Welsh into a ten point lead once more as the teams enjoyed a brief respite at half-time with the scores closed temporarily at 23-13.
Wales gained a third try soon after the restart as they started to pull away from the visitors. Morgan and Jones set up replacement Rhys Williams, on for the injured Tom Shanklin, who demonstrated his pace in a 40 metre sprint to the Italian line. Jones converted, as he would for all five tries scored that afternoon, to give Wales a seventeen point cushion.
Wales captain Scott Quinnell also entered the scoring action as he took full advantage from a penalty gained though the sin-binning of Aaron Persico; Wales’s lead swelled to 37-13. With an extra man on the field Wales’s play relaxed and soon Marinos, scoring his first Welsh try, added a fifth to Wales’s tally.
However, after a flurry of substitutions Wales seemed to lose their fluidity and as a consequence enabled Italy to get back into the game. The final score of the match came from Francesco Mazzariol’s converted try, rounding off the scores at 44-18 and concluding Wales’s sole victory of the tournament.
