A Golden Slam beckons as Italians self-destruct in tragedy of errors
AND SO Wales head for Paris on Saturday within sight of the most surprising of Grand Slams, a prospect as golden as the anniversary it marks.
They will make the journey exactly 50 years after Wales last won the glittering prize in the French capital, not any old team but the revered one of Gareth and Barry, Merve the Swerve, Gerald and JPR. As well as making the most of their luck, their successors are one win away from the most historic of action replays.
If that means someone suffering for the cause the way Barry John did at Stade Colombes on March 27, 1971, so be it. Not exactly renowned for his defensive ferocity, the master of wizardry famously put his wand away to stop a stampeding Benoit Dauga, a tackle which saved the Slam at the expense of a broken nose.
Thanks to the neighbourly act at Twickenham, they are now the last men standing for the Slam. It would be no exaggeration to say that Wales have staggered European rugby throughout the first four rounds of the tournament. Their recovery from the ashes of the Nations Cup campaign before Christmas would put the average Phoenix to shame.
This, remember, was supposed to be the Six Nations which would be settled by the result at Twickenham yesterday. With England counted out, the holders had been plunged into the ironic position of desperately needing a win which would merely enhance prospects of Wales succeeded them as champions, with or without Le Grand Chelem.
And so it proved, a result which raises the possibility of Wales perhaps being within a losing bonus point of clinching the title. Having come this far, they will settle for nothing less than taking the Stade de France by storm acutely aware that they will be tested as never before.
Resistance has been a recurring problem for Italy, never more so than over the last six months. If anything, it has been even more of a handicap at home in the Eternal City than on the road.
They held out for all of five minutes against England last autumn before Ben Youngs scored the opening try. France landed a similarly swift blow last month through Dylan Cretin before Ireland took twice as long a fortnight later.
Far from reinforcing the barricades, Italy saved their worst for yesterday, as if hell-bent on ridiculing pre-match Welsh warnings over the Italian threat as so much ballyhoo. That Italy wasted no time underlining their capacity for haemorrhaging points from any and every position merely added to the sense of absurdity.
All Wales had to do was wait for the kick-off. Having obligingly kicked it dead and presented the tournament leaders with a scrum on halfway, Italy promptly followed one gift with another, a penalty which Biggar duly nailed from long-range.
Three down in not quite as many minutes, Italy were only warming up when it came to selfdestruction with their captain guilty of the most damaging blow. Luca Bigi’s failure to retreat five metres let alone the requisite ten from a Gareth Davies tapped penalty left referee Wayne Barnes no option but to bin him.
In his absence, Wales took such complete advantage that the match had been won and lost by the time Italy could be reunited with their captain. Dan Biggar, pulling the strings like a master puppeteer, made the first try for Josh Adams in one corner promptly followed by Taulupe Faletau exposing Italy’s lack of man-power in the other.
The perennial choppingblocks had no sooner been restored to full strength than they found themselves in even worse trouble with 15 than they had been with 14. Faced with a Welsh driving maul cranked into overdrive, they crumbled, leaving head coach Franco Smith unable to contain his anguish.
One implosion rapidly followed by another allowed Ken Owens to score twice and secure the trybonus point within the first half hour. At that point it was odds-on that ‘The Sheriff of Carmarthen’ would help himself to as many Test tries in a matter of minutes as he had accumulated all over the world in the previous ten years.
The onslaught continued after the break with Jonathan Davies releasing North to equal Shane Williams’ Wales record of 22 Six Nations tries.
Italy responded with a fine individual try from wing Ioane that Paolo Garbisi converted, while Adams was denied a second score after failing to ground the ball in time.
Wales made a raft of changes, including Scarlets lock Jake Ball coming on for his 50th cap, before Italy replacement prop Marco Riccion was yellow-carded for use of the elbow.
Wales took advantage with a first Test try for flyhalf Callum Sheedy, before Louis Rees-Zammit completed the scoring.
Wales deserve credit for a demolition job carried out with an efficiency ruthless enough to suggest they intend peaking when it matters most, at the Stade de France on Saturday.
Their progress, aided and abetted at the very start by Peter O’Mahony’s sending off, has been little short of startling.
The Welsh management are too professional to permit themselves such a thought but the nature of their team’s transformation from no-hopers to No.1 contenders might be seen by some as proof that cracking this Grand Slam business isn’t all that difficult.
The evidence is incontrovertible: an Irish red card early in the first game, a Scottish one later in the second, two tries against England which, had the
boot on the other foot, would have caused uproar and now a nice afternoon in the Roman sunshine without anyone or anything to spoil the view.
Ironically, Paul Gauzere, the French referee in Cardiff when England paid the price for their chronic technical indiscipline, was on hand yesterday as one of Barnes’ assistants. As such, he was not involved in anything more contentious than flagging for touch.
As mis-matches go, it is difficult to recall a more glaring example since Italy’s admission 21 years ago. Under the Marquis of Queensberry rules, it would have been stopped inside the distance, probably at the end of the most one-sided 40 minutes I can recall since Raphael Ibanez’s France frazzled Wales 51-0 at Wembley on a blazing spring afternoon in 1998.
Unable to manage any more than one attacking sortie before half-time, Italy at least finished the match laying siege to the Welsh line, not that it mattered.
Sooner, rather than later, the Six Nations will have to address the Italian question and decide how much longer they can go on like this, staggering from one defeat to another. They have now lost 31 in a row, most by a country mile.
In five Championship matches since October – against England twice, Ireland twice and France – they have shipped 37 tries.
Wales will not care a jot about that, not when they stand so close to an achievement beyond their wildest dreams.