NORTH STARS AS WALES SAIL PAST ITALY
GEORGE NORTH breathed fire into Wales yesterday, ending his troubled week with a pair of tries against Italy. Accused by his club side Northampton of not wanting to play against Sale last weekend, the winger lit up the Principality Stadium. North may have endured an average few years at the Saints but his record of 34 tries in 75 Tests for Wales and the British and Irish Lions stands with the greats. And he is accustomed to scoring against Italy, too. He now has eight against the Azzurri — and his scores lifted Wales into second in the Championship table. North was delighted to end a torrid time back on the scoresheet, but was still annoyed he did not take three tries. He admitted: ‘It’s been a difficult couple of weeks. Having this game as a focus was a really good thing for me. It’s been a long time since I started for Wales due to injury, so it was a mixed bag of emotion there. ‘Two tries was a bonus, but I was gutted to see the third one disallowed. That would have been the icing on the cake.’ Hadleigh Parkes scored the opening try, before Maxime Mbanda then flicked a bad pass and Owen Watkin snaffled it. He belted away for 50 metres before finding North to score. In another fumbling tournament for Italy, Matteo Minozzi has been an undimmed light — his try was superb. The full-back stepped past Liam Williams and Gareth Davies to score. Tommaso Allan kicked the extras. Italy consistently turned down shots at goal after that, but when Allan finally pointed to the sticks he missed. Gareth Anscombe showed him how it is done before Williams was sin-binned. The full-back hit Minozzi high in the dead-ball area and his card was the last act of the half. On the resumption, Gareth Davies was quickly binned for a slap-down. That was the last we saw of both — Warren Gatland explaining he hooked the pair to ‘send a message’. Cory Hill soon touched down 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. Italy did score again, Mattia Bellini crossing with four minutes left. Substitute Carlo Canna banged over the conversion. North almost had his hat-trick, taking a cross-kick, but referee Jerome Garces had already blown for a scrum.