Wales woes deepen as Italy inflict 14th straight loss on Six Nations visitors

Wales suffered an eye-watering 14th successive international defeat as they were beaten 22-15 in a wet-weather Six Nations clash at the Stadio Olimpico on Saturday.

Italy’s only try in their victory came via Ange Capuozzo in the first period as Tommaso Allan’s 17 points off the tee kept them at arm’s length in what was a deserved triumph.

Wales would cross through Aaron Wainwright and were also rewarded a late penalty try, but it wasn’t enough to save Warren Gatland’s charges from yet another Test defeat.

For the Azzurri this is a history-making victory as it’s their first back-to-back triumph over a tournament rival, having overcome Wales at the Principality Stadium last year.

The inclement weather did not help in terms of a free-flowing contest but it is to Italy’s credit that they played the conditions better than the Welsh and duly ran out winners.

Wales came close to having the perfect start on two minutes when Tomos Williams’ cross-field kick proved just too strong for a chasing Josh Adams who could not gather.

And the Azzurri made them pay with Allan kicking his first penalty of the game four minutes later after Freddie Thomas was caught offside by referee Matthew Carley.

Ben Thomas levelled matters on 16 minutes when the in-form Tommaso Mennoncello took out Williams off the ball, with the Wales fly-half making no mistake from distance.

But then Italy began to turn the screw and their dominance bore fruit thanks to Garbisi’s sublime dummy and kick ahead for Capuozzo who finished expertly on the right wing.

The converted try and a second Allan penalty made it 13-3 before the half-hour mark and then Wales hooker Evan Lloyd was penalised at a ruck which moved it to 16-3.

Wales desperately needed a response but unfortunately for them, the first half would finish as it started, with a Williams kick not gathered by Adams in the wet weather.

Italy remained the superior side after the resumption but Allan was unable to repay his pack for a scrum penalty win as he was wayward for the first time on 52 minutes and again two minutes later, this after Taulupe Faletau was penalised for a blatant neck roll at the breakdown.  Thankfully for Wales, they remained just 13 points adrift of the hosts.

A third straight penalty miss would follow on 58 minutes, this time from Martin Page-Relo from inside his own half after wing Tom Rogers was penalised for a high tackle.

Still, it felt that those misses were unlikely to come back to haunt Italy, especially when the onrushing Adams was yellow-carded for making clumsy head contact on Garbisi.

Allan would stop the rot off the tee on 61 minutes as he made it 19-3 while Adams watched on from the sidelines, slotting his fourth penalty of the afternoon in Rome.

Finally, though the Wales fans would have something to cheer as their first try of this year’s Six Nations came via Wainwright after a solid driving maul which made it 19-8.

Allan did hit back with another three-pointer before Wales finally upped the tempo and impetus, capitalising on their profitable driving maul again which led to Marco Riccioni and Dino Lamb being sin-binned for blatant offences.  The latter would lead to Carley awarding a penalty try to make it a seven-point game but Italy held on for victory.

The teams

Italy:  15 Tommaso Allan, 14 Ange Capuozzo, 13 Juan Ignacio Brex, 12 Tommaso Menoncello, 11 Monty Ioane, 10 Paolo Garbisi, 9 Martin Page-Relo, 8 Lorenzo Cannone, 7 Michele Lamaro (c), 6 Sebastian Negri, 5 Federico Ruzza, 4 Niccolo Cannone, 3 Simone Ferrari, 2 Giacomo Nicotera, 1 Danilo Fischetti
Replacements:  16 Gianmarco Lucchesi, 17 Luca Rizzoli, 18 Marco Riccioni, 19 Dino Lamb, 20 Manuel Zuliani, 21 Ross Vintcent, 22 Alessandro Garbisi, 23 Jacopo Trulla

Wales:  15 Blair Murray, 14 Tom Rogers, 13 Nick Tompkins, 12 Eddie James, 11 Josh Adams, 10 Ben Thomas, 9 Tomos Williams, 8 Taulupe Faletau, 7 Jac Morgan (c), 6 James Botham, 5 Freddie Thomas, 4 Will Rowlands, 3 Henry Thomas, 2 Evan Lloyd, 1 Gareth Thomas
Replacements:  16 Elliot Dee, 17 Nicky Smith, 18 Keiron Assiratti, 19 Teddy Williams, 20 Aaron Wainwright, 21 Rhodri Williams, 22 Dan Edwards, 23 Josh Hathaway

Referee:  Matthew Carley (RFU)
Assistant Referees:  Paul Williams (NZR), Sam Grove-White (SRU)
TMO:  Eric Gauzins (FFR)