WINNERS
The rise and rise of the young Dragon continues apace.
Barely two years ago, he was turning out for Cardiff Met in the WRU Championship. Now he is standing tall as a Six Nations starter for Wales.
If the 21-year-old is not careful, he is in danger of becoming a player Warren Gatland won’t be able to leave out for the World Cup.
He had a particularly strong game here, aggressive and invariably breaking the first line of defence.
If he wasn’t clattering Italians, he was driving through them and he possessed the awareness to surge through a line-out at one point to intercept a pass.
Josh Navidi won the official manof-the-match award and he grafted hard, while Thomas Young achieved a number of turnovers and finished in credit, even if his positioning was awry for one of Italy’s tries.
But it was perhaps the head-banded and warrior-like Wainwright who most caught the eye.
The youngster has a big future.
THE WELSH CLASS OF 2019
It was 1910 when it last occurred. Breaking off from discussing the deeds of Herbert Asquith’s Liberal government and the reign of Edward VII, someone might have turned to his work pals over a pint costing barely a penny in old money and said: “Hey, lads, Wales have just won 11 rugby matches in a row. “How good is that?”
Good enough to stand as a record for the last 109 years, as it happens.
But Warren Gatland’s modern-day class of 2019 have now matched the efforts of Dicky Owen and those sepia-framed boys of yesteryear.
It is close on 12 months since they started a sequence of victories that has now put them in the history books alongside their predecessors from days of yore.
Years from now readers of those same books will not remember Saturday’s ordinary performance in Rome.
They will just read that this group of Welsh players equalled the longest-ever unbeaten run by the national team.
For that, they deserve a collective pat on the back.
It may just have been worth flying out to Rome to witness live an extraordinary piece of skill from Wales’ fullback.
Tracking back to gather an Italian kick upfield, Williams was under no little heat, with wing Angelo Esposito in hot pursuit. The Welshman seemed to have little option other than to fall on the ball and maybe risk conceding a turnover deep in his own half.
But he showed extraordinary grace under pressure, bending slightly and scooping up the ball with one hand before putting in a sumptuous offload.
It was a moment of high class and, not long after, the deceptively powerful Williams followed it up by breaking a tackle and passing on to Josh Adams for the wing to cross the Italian line.
There were not many moments to savour in Rome.