[2016 RBS Six Nations] Round 5: Wales vs. Italy (19/03/2016)

[ThebigARena]

Italy got mullered by most teams this 6 nations. Italy always start a 6 nations more brightly and they slowly become worse through the championship. They are like it every year but have been a lot worse this year

But be my guest, enjoy this win like you've just beaten New Zealand.

1. I know this is not NZ
2. Instead of critiquing Italy maybe give some credit to Wales or is that beyond your lemon tongue.
3. Thank you I will enjoy the win as any supporter of any nation would!

 

[Tony Manx]

This hollow victory was summed up by making North the MoM for a run through a gap the size of a barn door to score a try without a hand being laid on him!!

Thought the scrummie actually was as at least he had some work to do which he did well......North would not have needed a bath after that game!

Relegation......can there really be a worse team than Italy are at the moment so why not even if I know it will not happen for years and years and years and..............

 

[Vieux Talonneur]

Yes, Italy have their injuries this time, but its been 16 years and they've barely troubled mid table let alone ever been in contention.

Trouble is that it's a very minority sport in Italy with no domestic structure to speak of, and while that's the case, little will change (Argentina somehow seem to be an exception to this). Many of their best players - Parisse, Castro and Dominguez are imports, not to mention the likes of McLean and Geldenhuys etc etc.

I don't want to throw the baby out with the bath water, but something has to change.

 

[Genghis]

Parisse isn't an import.

He was born in Argentina, to Italian parents who were working in Argentina at the time. When their jobs finished, they all went back to Italy.

By the same argument, would you say that John McEnroe isn't an American, and that he is German?

 

[Vieux Talonneur]

Ok, but I think he was realised in ARG and learned his rugby there. The point is that he wasn't the product of the Italian domestic game.

 

[Tony Manx]

Ok, but I think he was realised in ARG and learned his rugby there. The point is that he wasn't the product of the Italian domestic game.

I think I read his Mum is Argentinian?

 

[PAC]

Both his parents are Italians. I did some further research on him and found some interesting facts about him :
His dad was a former rugby player who has been Italian champion with L'Aquila.
Sergio started rugby at 6 years old in Argentina. When he was 17, the -19 Italian National team went to Argentina for 2 tests matchs, and their manager , an acquaintance of Sergio's father, took him for a few training sessions with them. He did make such an impression that they selected him for the -19 rugby WC in Chile.

 

[Tony Manx]

I stand corrected!!!

 

[Thingimubob]

Italy weren't great no, but some credit needs to go to Wales for actually looking creative and clinical in attack for once.

Some lovely handling across the park, and some lovely length of the field tries too.

Hoping we take that mentality to NZ, as the gameplan we usually use simply isn't going to work. Kicking constantly to their back 3 is gonna be suicidal - just as it proved to be vs England.

 

[Genghis]

Well done and congratulations to England, who performed best as a team and were the most consistent side this season.

I must admit to a nagging frustrated sense of loss, as this year's ***le was IMO Wales's to lose ..... And we did!

We had the most settled and experienced side, and the other teams are all in transition.

Warren Gatland has been the best Welsh coach that I can remember. He is the reason we are disappointed when we dont win the 6N outright, and he is the reason we can be disappointed by a 60 point thrashing of a 6N international team. However, as with all leadership teams, I do wonder whether he has now given us everything he has, and whether we need new leadership to take us to the next stage of our evolution. It's clear we now have a winning mentality, huge commitment,ma great defence and supreme fitness. It's also clear that we have game breaking players who aren't breaking games.

This season has reminded me of the year I was in Cardiff watching as we slept through the first half of the Ireland game and leaked four tries. We came out for the second half and tore Ireland apart, but had given them too much of a head start. We then won all the remaining games. That season was a grand slam waiting to happen, and we failed. We did that again this season.

 

[dullonien]

Now that the dust has settled on the 6 nations, I can't help bit feel it was a missed opportunity from a Welsh perspective. Not necessarily because we didn't win the thing, but because we didn't use it to develop our style of play until it was too late.

I do think that we could have potentially won the tournament if we played anywhere near our best, especially given how poor everyone else was bar England. Even England weren't great though! I think most of their fans will be expecting big improvements over the next few years, still an excellent start to Jones' tenure, and a great marker to put down with a view to tweak the team/game plan further.

It seems obvious to most how Wales need to adapt in order to improve. The Italy match was an example of how we should be going about things, but it's difficult to judge how much was down to a terrible display from Italy.

We now have another test v England, followed by a tour of NZ looming on the horizon. Not exactly the ideal matches to try to implement changes to the basic game plan which we have been using for 8 years! I hope we at least try though, because if there's one silver lining which has hopefully come from the lackluster performances this 6 nations, it's that being conservative and sticking to an out-dated playing style will get us nowhere. If Gatland has any aspirations of coaching NZ one day then he must prove he's got more than one trick up his sleeve, because NZ certainly wouldn't let a coach who's unwilling to evolve anywhere near their beloved All Blacks.

 

[valley commando]

2nd in the poorest 6 Nations I can remember.
I don't see any progress at all, we were poor against a poor Ireland, marginally better against a Scotland side who aren't that good, average against the worst French side fora decade, then we didn't turn up for over an hour against an England side who the press are wrongly building up to be better than they actually are, then we beat a weak injury ravaged Italy, we are always going to be average whilst Howley is in charge of attack. Mark Ring was talking sense on radio Wales Saturday evening in a call to Rick O'Shea, we have these naturally gifted attacking, off the cuff backs who Howley manages to coach the flair out of. (Ringo didn't name Howley but he did suggest that players are having the flair and instinct restricted by the coaching methods employed by Wales)
Well done to England whose young squad performed okay, you were the best of a bad bunch and something dramatic needs to happen if we are to receive anything other than humiliation on our respective SH summer tours.

 

[againstallodds]

2nd in the poorest 6 Nations I can remember.
I don't see any progress at all, we were poor against a poor Ireland, marginally better against a Scotland side who aren't that good, average against the worst French side fora decade, then we didn't turn up for over an hour against an England side who the press are wrongly building up to be better than they actually are, then we beat a weak injury ravaged Italy, we are always going to be average whilst Howley is in charge of attack. Mark Ring was talking sense on radio Wales Saturday evening in a call to Rick O'Shea, we have these naturally gifted attacking, off the cuff backs who Howley manages to coach the flair out of. (Ringo didn't name Howley but he did suggest that players are having the flair and instinct restricted by the coaching methods employed by Wales)
Well done to England whose young squad performed okay, you were the best of a bad bunch and something dramatic needs to happen if we are to receive anything other than humiliation on our respective SH summer tours.

How did this pan out VC?

 

[Bada-Bing!]

How did this pan out VC?

Well Wales were humiliated last summer; especially in the last test......

 

[againstallodds]

Well Wales were humiliated last summer; especially in the last test......

Haha, well, just mildly mocking the England are overrated rhetoric.

 

[Maverick1987]

Haha, well, just mildly mocking the England are overrated rhetoric.

Yeh VC won't reply to this because he's still red with rage and green with envy .... not too many more colours and there will be a rainbow in Ebbw Vale ....