Bortolami: Welsh clash is our biggest challenge

ITALY captain Marco Bortolami has pitched this afternoon’s clash with Wales as the Azzurri’s biggest challenge since joining the Six Nations in 2000.

Bortolami is determined Italy can build on their victory over Scotland at Murrayfield a fortnight ago by achieving another championship first – two wins in a single campaign.

Each member of the Italian team will earn a €20,000 bonus if they can shunt Wales a step closer to the wooden spoon with a fourth straight defeat.

But the motivation for Bortolami is greater than that. To secure successive wins would represent a significant milestone in the development of Italian rugby.

The Gloucester lock said: “It will change for us if we can achieve a win. Our big challenge with Italy is to play with consistency, week after week, match after match.

“This is our biggest challenge. We have proved in the past we can win one match in one tournament but that is not enough. We need to be consistent during the tournament. It will be a tough game but we have to be confident because we have everything we need to win this match.”

Meanwhile Gareth Jenkins insists the time has come for Wales to translate their passion, pride and hard work into a precious victory in Rome today.

He said: “We are proud guys, we have been working hard and we haven’t had a result yet.

“We realise we need to win and we realise we need to play well. We feel it is important to make a statement tomorrow and get a result.

“We are not going to move away from the style we want to play but we come here determined to get something out of this weekend.”

He admitted: “Italy are fired up and playing well. They had a great historic win last week and that will have added to their confidence.

‘‘They are starting to grow in confidence and have a lot of players who play at a high level.’’