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Beleaguered Wales face wooden spoon battle with Six Nations rivals Italy

football07 February 2025 03:30| © AFP
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Wales face off with Italy in Rome on Saturday trying to end a record-breaking run of defeats in what will likely be the key clash in the battle to avoid the Six Nations' wooden spoon.

Warren Gatland's beleaguered team have lost their last 13 tests and this weekend's fixture in the Italian capital will be their best chance of ending a desperate sequence of results for a proud rugby union nation.

Wales are the current wooden spoon holders after losing to Italy in Cardiff and ending last year's tournament below the Azzurri, who ended their own miserable run of eight straight last-place finishes.

And a thumping 43-0 defeat at the hands of France last weekend highlighted once again how far behind the rest Wales currently find themselves.

While Italy are a minor rugby nation, they are no longer whipping boys and under Gonzalo Quesada have a young, hungry group of players who were if anything unlucky not to finish the 2024 tournament further up the table.

"I think what impressed me about them is their fight," Gatland told reporters on Thursday.

"They're a team that won't go away. They'll compete hard at the breakdown, and we know that. They're a tough team to put away."

Gatland has been given a boost in the shape of No 8 Taulupe Faletau who will play his first test in 16 months after overcoming a raft of injuries.

Faletau was in the last Wales team to win a full international, over Georgia in the 2023 World Cup when the 34-year-old's injury travails began with a broken arm.

He will pick up his 105th cap on Saturday and bring a wealth of experience as a former Six Nations winner.

"We had him in the autumn when he was still recovering from a shoulder, but he was running around and taking a significant part of most of the trainings," said Gatland.

"It's been tough on him and it's been hard with the injuries that he's had over the last number of years.

"We're looking for some of those special traits that he has to get us on the front foot and hopefully inspire those players around him."

NO COMPLACENCY

Italy had their best ever Six Nations last season with wins over Scotland and Wales and a draw with France which would have been a historic win had Paolo Garbisi not hit the post with a last-gasp penalty.

Quesada's side showed the battling spirit which has impressed Gatland during their opening 31-19 loss to Scotland at Murrayfield, where the Azzurri battled back to 19 apiece before succumbing to defeat.

Former Argentina fly-half Quesada has mostly kept faith with that team, making only one change in the second row with Niccolo Cannone replacing fellow lock Dino Lamb.

Italy should be considered favourites for Saturday's match but Quesada warned against complacency which cost the Italians defeat to Wales in Rome in 2023, Wales' last win in the Six Nations.

"Two years ago this group of players had after a historic win over Wales another match against them at home, and all around them they heard that it was the match to win, the easiest match in the Six Nations," Quesada told reporters.

"They lost and put in a pretty bad performance, and that helps me because no one is going to be lax in their preparation, right now we know that this team we're facing has nothing to do with what's happened in the past.

"No one in this squad thinks this will be an easy game... What we want to do is consolidate what we did well in Scotland and do better what we didn't manage to do well. It will be a fierce battle."

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