Rob Howley’s dilemma before Saturday’s potentially tournament-defining encounter against England in Cardiff is whether to say Sam again, twice over.
The decision of Wales’s interim head coach to play Sam Warburton out of position at blindside wing-forward against Italy was amply vindicated, not least when the former captain prevented the home team from adding to their 7-3 lead in the final minute of the first half by making himself immovable over the ball and winning a penalty. The arrival of the fly-half Sam Davies at the start of the second half enabled Wales to become more comfortable and threatening in possession.
Davies was brought on early because Dan Biggar sustained a rib injury, inflicted inadvertently by one of his team-mates, Ken Owens. Where Wales laboured with the ball in hand in the first half, a downpour before the kick-off making handling initially hazardous, they were more fluent with Davies directing play and the outside-half was involved in their three tries.
Biggar, whose strong point is his tactical kicking, prefers to stand deeper than Davies. His chips tested Italy in the opening quarter, with Carlo Canna’s tackle on Liam Williams saving a try, but his positioning allowed Italy to fan out wide rather than commit to the breakdown and rush up quickly on the Wales midfield, limiting the supply to Williams and George North on the wings and forcing handling errors.
Davies’s arrival resulted in Italy putting more men into the breakdown in an attempt to slow down Wales’s possession and put pressure on the outside-half. It left space wider out, which Davies exploited through the simplicity of his game, especially his knowing when to pass.
Wales’s first try came after Davies, having not committed himself to going on the open or blindside, came from deep and invited the tackle, passing at the point of contact to Scott Williams outside him. All the centre, who had struggled to get into the game before, had to do was commit the next defender and create the space for Jonathan Davies.
For Wales’s second try Sam Davies positioned himself on the blind side where his team had a four on three. Last season they tended to squander those opportunities by mistiming their passes or not passing at all but Davies, spotting a prop on his outside shoulder, gave the ball immediately to Williams, who preserved the overlap by straightening up before feeding Jonathan Davies.
That forced the remaining defender to move in on Davies, who fed the unmarked Liam Williams outside him. The two tries were significant because Wales have lately struggled to create in tight matches and they involved breaking down the defence rather than, as has been the case in their recent matches against Italy, waiting for it to fall apart.
Wales’s third try, which ensured they recorded their highest points total in the opening round of the Six Nations, came when Sam Davies received the ball just outside his 22 and, instead of kicking it away, spotted North had space on the right. The wing had been struggling with a dead leg for most of the match but he still had the pace to reach the line and give his side three minutes to secure a try bonus point, which not even their most sanguine supporter would have envisaged at half-time.
They were centimetres away, Williams losing control of the ball on the line in the final play of the game, but the tournament’s notoriously slow starters will go into the contest against England, opponents they have not defeated in the Six Nations since snatching the title off them in Cardiff four years ago, with momentum.
Selection will be key for Howley, an area where Warren Gatland, who is taking a sabbatical from Wales this season to focus on the Lions’ tour to New Zealand, is strong. Fly-half, if Biggar is fit, will be the biggest call but, with Taulupe Faletau expected to be fit to reclaim his place at No8, Howley would have to pick between Warburton, Justin Tipuric and Ross Moriarty at wing-forward.
Warburton, relieved of the captaincy, was at his destructive best, stealing a lineout in the second half to thwart Italy’s one attacking opportunity when they were still in the game, and carrying powerfully. Howley made a decisive call on 50 minutes when he changed his two props and the scrum became one-way, yielding a yellow card. Wales exploited the numerical advantage with two tries.
With injury-hit England struggling at the breakdown against France, Wales’s back row should be Warburton, Tipuric and Faletau, as it was in 2013, but it is the call at outside-half that will be Howley’s test. Davies, like George Ford, is not the biggest but he puts himself in the way, quickly getting up after being crunched by Sergio Parisse, and it should be a case of play again, Sam.
