Wales take heart for World Cup despite falling just short in Italy rout

http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2015/mar/22/wales-world-cup-italy-six-nations

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It was a curious situation — pretty much unique in the life of a professional rugby player. Wales had just put 60 past Italy. If the directive was to score as many points as possible, they couldn’t have expected much more from an extraordinary second half that yielded seven tries. Afterwards, they completed a lap of honour in front of a large army of travelling support who seemed to match that of their hosts. When it came to the numbers game, Wales had done all they could.

But it was not quite enough. By the time the Welsh players had showered and gathered themselves to confront the media, Ireland were well on their way to the 22-point margin of victory they needed to overtake Wales at the top of the Six Nations table. The atmosphere had plummeted from jubilance to dejection. Don’t let anyone tell you that grand slams are all that matter. Winning the championship still counts, if the body language of Jamie Roberts an hour and a half after a 61-20 romp is anything to go by.

“It is difficult,” he said, as the Irish built their lead. “That’s the way it goes, but we have shown good mental strength and a good ability to bounce back. We are pleased with four out of five wins. But it is out of our hands now.”

It was important for Wales to build positives from the experience, which you wouldn’t think too difficult a task. That second half was mightily impressive after all, even if it proved in vain. The topic that kept recurring in the post-match analyses was the World Cup. Warren Gatland had gone so far as to suggest Wales were capable of becoming world champions, and his colleagues were not shy of highlighting their tendency to wax the longer they spend together.

“We’ll be on an even higher plateau by the World Cup,” vowed Wales’s assistant coach Shaun Edwards. “The World Cup is the only time that we compete on level terms with the southern-hemisphere teams. They are together for four months every year. We like to think we get better with time together. There are no guarantees, but I don’t think we’ll be a bad team come the World Cup. The longer we’re together, the better we seem to be.”

Wales’s first game at the World Cup is against Uruguay, which ought to be negotiable, even for slow starters, but by then they will have enjoyed the benefit of three warm-up fixtures — against Ireland (twice) and Italy. Then it will be England at Twickenham on 26 September, a fixture we might as well get used to discussing, however much the spectacular final day of the Six Nations deserves celebrating.

“They’re always massive games when Wales play England,” said Rhys Webb, Wales’s scrum-half, who put in an outstanding try-scoring performance in Rome. “We are a confident side. We know that we should have beaten England in that first game [of the Six Nations]. We have grown and are in a really good place. We will work hard at the training camps in the summer and go to the World Cup on a high.”

As riveting as the Six Nations’ denouement was for the rest of us, all three of the teams level on points at the top of the table leave the championship slightly dissatisfied. Wales feel they should have done better in their first match against England, but England and Ireland will feel the same way about the games they lost. The truth is that the three teams go into the World Cup in rude shape and impossible to separate, even if it was Ireland who clinched the title by a handful of points. But, as disappointing as Italy were in the second half here, Wales can claim to be the form side of the Six Nations.

They have been unfairly maligned as a one-dimensional team, largely due to the obvious size and power of their three-quarters, but when they are in the mood — and have earned the right, which they did in a vigorous joust with Italy during the first half — they can trip the light fantastic as well as anyone. George North ended a lean try-scoring spell with a hat-trick in 11 minutes, but it was Liam Williams who slashed the game open.

He had moved to full-back in the first half when Leigh Halfpenny retired with concussion, and his case for retaining the No15 shirt is becoming very difficult to ignore. Halfpenny is close to undroppable, but that is because of his goal-kicking (although Dan Biggar did a fine job from the tee after he’d gone). As a full-back, there is no doubt that Williams is the man in form. His try at the start of the second half, for which he picked a superb line off Webb’s tapped penalty, sparked what was to become one of the most extraordinary routs in Six Nations history.

And yet it was not quite extraordinary enough. Nevertheless, the warning note has been sounded clear and shrill. That group of death at the 2015 World Cup looked ever more lethal as Wales’s tries rolled in.

Italy McLean; Sarto, Morisi (Bacchin, 74), Masi, Venditti; Haimona (Orquera, 5), Gori (Palazzani, 74); Rizzo, Ghiraldini (capt; Manici ,51), Castrogiovanni (Chistolini, 51), Biagi (Geldenhuys, 51), Furno, Minto, Bergamasco, Vunisa.

Sin-bin Masi 53, Geldenhuys 65.

Tries Venditti, Sarto. Cons Orquera 2. Pens Haimona, Orquera.

Wales Halfpenny (S Williams, 34); North, J Davies, Roberts, L Williams (Priestland, 71); Biggar, Webb (G Davies, 71); Evans (Gill, 53), Baldwin (Owens, 56), Jarvis (Andrews, 74), Charteris, A W Jones, Lydiate (Tipuric, 56), Warburton (capt), Faletau

Tries Roberts, L Williams, North 3, Webb, Warburton, S Williams. Cons Biggar 6. Pens Halfpenny 2, Biggar.

Referee Chris Pollock (New Zealand). Attendance 65,827.