Wales gear up for Italy showdown

With few expecting Wales to emerge with anything from their final pool game against New Zealand next weekend, this was it – a showdown with Italy for a place in the last eight of the World Cup.

For Wales to miss out on the quarter-finals in a group which included the Azzurri, Canada and Tonga would be little short of a sporting disaster for a nation who only 16 years ago finished third at the inaugural World Cup.

The doom-mongers were predicting the worst, and even Wales coach Steve Hansen insisted during the week that the Italians were favourites, based on the Azzurri’s victory in Rome during the RBS Nations earlier this year.

But his opposite number, John Kirwan, was having none of it, and thrust the tag back into the Welsh camp, citing his side’s lack of preparation time and mounting injury toll.

Italy beat Canada in a bruising encounter only last Tuesday and had to wait until yesterday before captain Alessandro Troncon and centre Andrea Masi were cleared to play.

Marco Bortolami, Manuel Dallan and Mirco Bergamasco were all missing for the Italians, who had never reached the last eight.

Wales were also made to battle for their last win, but had a week since scraping past Tonga to fine-tune their preparations and Hansen decided to make 10 changes.

In came a new front row, including Neath props Adam and Duncan Jones, for what was expected to be a fierce forwards battle, and a new half-back pairing.

Ceri Sweeney replaced Stephen Jones at fly-half and Dwayne Peel got the nod at scrum-half ahead of Gareth Cooper.

World Cup Pool D Italy v Wales

Italy:

Canale, Mazzucato, Stoica, Masi, D. Dallan, Wakarua, Troncon, Lo Cicero, Ongaro, Castrogiovanni, Checchinato, Dellape, De Rossi, Persico, Parisse.

Replacements: Festuccia, Perugini, Phillips, Palmer, M. Bergamasco, Mazzariol, Bezzi.

Wales:

Morgan, M. Jones, Parker, Harris, G. Thomas, Sweeney, Peel, D. Jones, McBryde, A. Jones, Cockbain, Llewellyn, D. Jones, M. Williams, Charvis.

Replacements: Davies, Jenkins, Sidoli, J. Thomas, Cooper, S. Jones, R. Williams.

Referee: Andrew Cole (Australia)