Back to drawing board for Johnson

Wales 18 Italy 18

The Azzurri secured their first away point in the Six Nations following the, after which Wales’ players were booed from the pitch less than 12 months after bringing home a Grand Slam.

Johnson, who is likely to be in charge of Wales for the last time against France on Saturday before returning home to Australia, didn’t criticise his players for their efforts against Italy.

“We had our opportunities in the first half. We didn’t make the most of them, let Italy back in the game and then got too afraid to lose to play the rugby,” said Johnson.

“The effort was there, I haven’t got a problem with that, but the execution was poor. There were more handling errors than normal.

“But you have to put your hand up and say Italy played their part.

“The intent was there but we just did not finish and then we went into our shell.

“We have to go back on to that drawing board and come up with something different next weekend against France.

“It’s disappointing we let ourselves down in our completion against Italy and we have to be honest about that.

“I keep hearing people talk about wholesale changes, but we haven’t got too many players left in our tank here.

“We will appraise everyone’s performance and be fair across the board on what we think is acceptable.”

Johnson will be forced into at least one change to his starting line-up against France with the loss of key scrum-half Dwayne Peel.

The Lions tourist is ruled out with a shoulder injury after he came off in the eighth minute after suffering ligament damage attempting to tackle Italy full-back Ezio Galon.

“Dwayne Peel won’t be there on Saturday, that is for sure,” confirmed Johnson.

Peel is now the seventh Welsh Lion to be sidelined during the championship along with skipper Gareth Thomas, Ryan Jones, Tom Shanklin, Brent Cockbain, Gareth Cooper and Gavin Henson.

Scrum-half Mike Phillips is the likely starter against France after he replaced Peel on Saturday.

Meanwhile, lock Robert Sidoli admitted the Italians frustrated Wales for large periods of the game and in the end deserved their first championship point away from home.

“The result wasn’t the one we expected because we were going for the win, but we weren’t surprised by the effort and honesty Italy showed,” said the Cardiff Blues forward.

“The second half was particularly frustrating. It was very stop-start. They played the tactics well.

“We did try to pick it up but things didn’t go our way.

“There were times in the first half when we could have opened up a really big lead but credit has to go to Italy for their defence.

“We played well in patches but when it became stop-start we chased it a bit too much and mistakes entered our game.”