Italy vs Wales result: Two wins from two for Warren Gatland’s side in gritty win over winless Italians
Re-live the action from the Six Nations clash at the Stadio Olimpico
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Your support makes all the difference.Re-live the live action from Saturday’s second Six Nations as Wales equalled their longest winning Test run with a 26-15 victory over Italy at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome.
Warren Gatland’s men have now won 11 games in a row thanks to second-half tries from Josh Adams and Owen Watkin, with four Dan Biggar penalties helping to establish an early lead that Italy would never recover from.
It home side did manage to get back into the game with a Braam Steyn try before the break, but despite another late flourish as Edoardo Padovani scored his second in as many weeks, Italy were not able to match Wales. Re-live the live action below.
What time does it start?
Italy vs Wales kicks off at 4:45pm (GMT).
Where can I watch it?
The match will be shown live on ITV from 4pm. The match will also be available on ITV Hub.
Highlights will be shown on Sunday at 6pm on BBC Two.
Teams
Italy: Hayward, Padovani, Campagnaro, Morisi, Esposito, Allan, Palazzani, Quaglio, Ghiraldini, Ferrari, Sisi, Budd, Negri, Steyn, Parisse (c)
Replacements: Bigi, Traore, Pasquali, Ruzza, Barbini, Gori, McKinley, Benvenuti
Wales: Williams, Holmes, J Davies (c), Watkin, Adams, Biggar, A Davies, Smith, Dee, Lee, Ball, Beard, Wainwright, Young, Navidi
Replacements: Elias, W Jones, Lewis, A W Jones, Moriarty, G Davies, Anscombe, Amos
Form guide…
Italy: WLWLLL
Wales: WWWWWW
Head-to-head…
Wales 38 (Parkes, North x2, Hill, Tipuric) Italy 14 (Minozzi, Bellini), Six Nations, March 2018
Italy 7 (Gori) Wales 33 (J Davies, L Williams, North), Six Nations, February 2017
Wales 67 (Webb, Biggar, J Davies, Roberts, North, L Williams, Moriarty x2, G Davies) Italy 14 (Palazzani, Garcia), Six Nations, March 2016
Odds…
Italy to win: 10/1
Wales to win: 1/16
Draw: 45/1
Prediction
Wales by 20 points: Despite heavily rotating his side, Warren Gatland can still expect his team to do a professional job on an Italy side that looks lost at sea at present. Even though Conor O'Shea's men are on home turf, it will take a monumental upset for Italy to record their first win over Wales in a dozen years.
47 mins: Not only can Wales not get over the line, they can't even retain the ball as Steyn gets his hands on it and rips it out of Navidi's hands. They clear their lines, and subsequently Steyn gets up first to steal the Welsh lineout! What a 60 seconds he's had!
48 mins: Conor O'Shea makes a surprising change as he brings off fly-half Allan with Ian McKinley on in his place. How will the change at 10 play out?
50 mins: Aled Davies is caught at the base after a good run from Biggar, and Italy pile in to force the scrum-half to drop it. It's a blue shirt that scoops it up and McKilnley boots it up-field, only for Liam Williams to win the foot race and retrieve the ball with a lovely one-handed pick-up. Gatland has seen enough, and he's sent on his captain Alun Wyn Jones in place of Jake Ball while Samson Lee is off with Dillon Lewis on. Italy meanwhile have swapped Nicola Quaglio with Cherif Traore.
52 mins: This is in danger of getting away from Wales as Biggar boots the ball straight into touch under little-to-no pressure. Italy can't take advantage of the lineout on halfway though as Palazzani knocks on the flick-down, and it's spiralling into a really scrappy game. Federico Ruzza is on in the second row for Budd.
54 mins: We'll class that one as the fabled commentator's curse. Just as I typed Wales were struggling, they break down the left, Davies passing to Liam Williams, and the full-back chooses the right decision to not give it to Josh Adams until he's committed Hayward to send the wing over unopposed. Biggar converts, and that's his last act as he's replaced by Gareth Anscombe. 10-19
58 mins: Wales look to be pressing on no as Traore is caught not rolling away - to be fair he made no attempt to move whatsoever - and despite Anscombe's drop-goal effort missing the target, he'll kick to touch as Wales go in search of a second try.
Here's how Italy bagged the first try of the match during the first half:
64 mins: The changes have not done this contest any favours at all, with the second half proving just as mistake-ridden as the first. Wales are on the attack...TRY FOR WALES!
Wait a second...there's a TMO check.
64 mins: NO TRY! Italy steal a lineout but it's collected by the Welsh hooker Dee, who punches a hole through the Italian defence. On the front-foot, Italy attack left and a kick in behind by Jonathan Davies causes all sorts of problems. Hayward fails to collect the ball cleanly and Davies rushes through to dive on the ball and score - only for the TMO to decide he's knocked it on.
That was a close call as replays didn't exactly make it clear whether he got a hand - or a finger - to it.
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