HUMBLED WALES IN DESPAIR
Italy’s last-gasp win spoils the party for stalwarts
DAN BIGGAR admittedwelsh heads are likely to roll after Italy wrecked the party planned for him and Alun Wyn Jones. Both stalwarts of the Dragonhood were meant to attend a post-match bash inside the Principality Stadium, thrown to celebrate their landmark achievements.
But the fizz fell flat from the moment Ange Capuozzo shredded thewelsh defence in the final move of the match to set up Edoardo Padovani for a stunning, match-snatching try.
Paolo Garbisi kicked the conversion and then threw himself to the turf in tears before being engulfed by joyous team-mates.
An over-emotional Latin reaction? Not at all. How do you think you might have felt if you had lost 36 Six Nations matches in succession and not won for seven years?
Especially, when your team had led 15-14 with 12 minutes to go, lost the lead to a third Wales try, and then won it back right at the death for a first victory onwelsh soil.
Biggar looked tearful, too, but his rage was more to do with anger and frustration that had followed the proudest moment of his career.thewales captain had run out on his own, ahead of his team, in celebration of his 100th cap for his country.
He was quickly joined by Jones, who was making his 150th appearance in a red shirt – the first player from any country to reach that mark for their nation.
But afterwales had lost, despite outscoring the Italians by three tries to one, Biggar revealed some of his team-mates would pay a big price for failure.
Wales have finished fifth after winning the title last season and Biggar said: “We’ve said in the huddle now, that’s probably the last chance for a lot of players.
“It’s so poor to lose it from where we were. We’ve played poorly all day but to not finish it off from 70 metres from our line.
“Too many boys were not quite up to speed.we were second to loose balls and balls in the air.
“It’s really disappointing that something that we pride ourselves on that requires no talent is work ethic.”
Wales had been off-key for most of the day but looked to have done enough to win when Josh Adams weaved his way through in the 68th minute to score his side’s third try.
The Azzurri had already recovered from conceding earlier tries to Owenwatkin and Dewi Lake but at that point it appeared the boots of Garbisi and Padovani – who kicked 17 points between them – would not be enough.
Wales coach Wayne Pivac admitted: “It’s very disappointing.we will review the performance and make sure it doesn’t happen again. It was an unacceptable performance.”
Italian coach Kieran Cowley said: “People can’t say we’ve lost 36 in a row any more!
“There will still be people who doubt us and our place in the tournament but we just have to show this is not a one-off.”