NORTH INJECTS LIFE INTO WALES
GEORGE NORTH breathed fire into Wales to end a woeful week with a pair of tries. Accused by Northampton of not wanting to play against Sale last weekend, the wing lit up the Principality Stadium, and his scores lifted Wales into second in the championship table. ‘It’s been a difficult couple of weeks,’ he said. ‘It’s been a long time since I started for Wales due to injury so it was a mixed bag of emotion there.’ Kiwi Hadleigh Parkes scored the opening try, bashing through Tommaso Castello and Sergio Parisse to get over. Italy came back strongly but Maxime Mbanda then flicked a bad pass and Owen Watkin snaffled it. He belted away for 50 metres and there was North on the right, scoring to end a horrid week over the bridge. In another bad tournament for Italy Matteo Minozzi has been an undimmed light — his try was superb, stepping past Liam Williams and Gareth Davies. Williams and Davies were both sin-binned before Cory Hill had the simplest of tries after more good work from North. Then North was at it again, taking the bonus-point try from close range. Leigh Halfpenny, on for Williams, hit that and the next kick after Justin Tipuric took the fifth try. Mattia Bellini crossed for Italy with four minutes left.