[2022 Six Nations] Wales vs Italy (19/03/22)

[Jakedood]

I watched Halaholo play v Ulster recently and to say he looked underwhelming would be putting it lightly, has he upped his game since then?

 

[Welsh Exile]

I watched Halaholo play v Ulster recently and to say he looked underwhelming would be putting it lightly, has he upped his game since then?

He's not played much rugby prior to that, or since then for that matter. I watched that game and agree with your assessment though assessing players on the general **** show that is the Welsh regions is sometimes difficult as it's hard to stand out on the back foot and with slow ball so he should fit in perfectly with the Welsh national side.

Joking aside, for me it's just a simple case of him offering skills in a position where we don't have any players who have what he has. Genuine pace, great step and offloading game with a decent enough defence (good over the ball as well as tackling)

But yeah, I expect similar against Italy really mainly due to rustiness and lack of match fitness but that should be negated a bit by paying against Italy where we should have at least some periods where we've got some good go forward which will benefit him unlike the Ulster game who are clearly a level above Cardiff and a top regional side, obviously.

 

[AlRums]

I know what you mean about it being a dead rubber but we have a chance to finish above England so all to play for.

More importantly, and I'm not sure on the numbers here, but I think finishing 3rd, as opposed to 5th, is worth about £1 million to the WRU coffers so definitely not something a nation like Wales can afford to turn our noses up at.

As I said earlier, though, I would've had him on the bench to bring on for the last 20 where hopefully we can get a decent point win. Though if England get a losing bonus point I think we need a 45 point win which is doable but it's not like we've exactly been running in tries for fun lately so we need to play our best players if we have any hope of doing that.

That £1 million will just about replace the £1 million of lost ticket sales due to silly prices last Friday

 

[Not Mike Brown's Sock]

Why did Wales announce a team so early btw?

 

[Welsh Exile]

That £1 million will just about replace the £1 million of lost ticket sales due to silly prices last Friday

Yeah true. All the more reason to rattle the jar and scrape in as much as we can, though. Maybe we could do a one off day where we let children have as much booze from the bar in the stadium to rake in a few extra quid.

 

[Welsh Exile]

Why did Wales announce a team so early btw?

We do it sometimes, not often mind. My guess in this instance would be:

A) It's Italy
And B) a couple of extra days plugging the Biggar/AWJ cap thing

There's probably some other reasons though I'd imagine.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

And B) a couple of extra days plugging the Biggar/AWJ cap thing

This probably plays a part in it - after the ticket issues of the last game they've got an extra few to advertise AWJs comeback

Plus if Pivac is 100% certain of his side, and doesn't need the extra two days of training to decide, then why not just name it?

 

[Astrodragon]

I know what you mean about it being a dead rubber but we have a chance to finish above England so all to play for.

More importantly, and I'm not sure on the numbers here, but I think finishing 3rd, as opposed to 5th, is worth about £1 million to the WRU coffers so definitely not something a nation like Wales can afford to turn our noses up at.

As I said earlier, though, I would've had him on the bench to bring on for the last 20 where hopefully we can get a decent point win. Though if England get a losing bonus point I think we need a 45 point win which is doable but it's not like we've exactly been running in tries for fun lately so we need to play our best players if we have any hope of doing that.

Assuming England and Scotland lose, we wont need the full 45 point win, so from Wale's pov the more England and Scotland lose by the better. So while coming 3rd isn't easy, its by no means impossible.

 

[Bruce_ma gooshvili]

Oh good, we get another chance to learn what Biggar is capable of.

Wales 33 - 9 Italy

 

[Bruce_ma gooshvili]

Italy: 15 Ange Capuozzo, 14 Edoardo Padovani, 13 Juan Ignacio Brex, 12 Leonardo Marin, 11 Montanna Ioane, 10 Paolo Garbisi, 9 Callum Braley, 8 Toa Halafihi, 7 Michele Lamaro (c), 6 Giovanni Pettinelli, 5 Federico Ruzza, 4 Marco Fuser, 3 Pietro Ceccarelli, 2 Giacomo Nicotera, 1 Danilo Fischetti

Replacements: 16 Luca Bigi, 17 Ivan Nemer, 18 Giosuè Zilocchi, 19 David Sisi, 20 Niccolò Cannone, 21 Braam Steyn, 22 Alessandro Fusco, 23 Marco Zanon

 

[AWJ5GOAT]

Since it appears that AWJ is starting the game I think it would only be natural if he took over the captaincy from Biggs but it seems that they have yet to decide who will lead the team out tmrw if I'm perfectly right? Who do you guys believe will lead the team out?

 

[AlRums]

Lovely kick from the italians

 

[Reiser99]

So it's official. I hate the ITV player more than Butler and Jiffy.

 

[General Melchett]

So it's official. I hate the ITV player more than Butler and Jiffy.

The forced watching of adverts is unbearable on catch up. You can't even switch to another window to look at something else. I just press mute and go and do something productive during the 3-4 minutes of adverts.

 

[ncurd]

So it's official. I hate the ITV player more than Butler and Jiffy.

Sacrilege!

 

[Reiser99]

The forced watching of adverts is unbearable on catch up. You can't even switch to another window to look at something else. I just press mute and go and do something productive during the 3-4 minutes of adverts.

Tbh for me it's that ITV player can't cope if the internet connection isn't perfect and being in Kuwait at the moment my connection means it just constantly stops to load.

 

[Reiser99]

Anyway, on the actual rugby Italy fully deserve their lead.

 

[Pieter Steph du Teague]

McNicholl really is trash

 

[AlRums]

Anyway, on the actual rugby Italy fully deserve their lead.

Seconded

 

[Reiser99]

Very harsh there on Italy, I thought that was a good turnover.