Wales have reached the stage of the Six Nations where for most of the years since 2007 they have been at their most effective. Vulnerable early on, as players struggle to take the significant step up from regional rugby, they become transformed by the time spent together and Italy in Rome should prove no more than a worn speed bump as they aim for a fifth grand slam in 16 years.
Not that Wales admit to talking about the grand slam, doffing caps to a team that has lost its last 30 matches in the Six Nations and has not mustered a losing bonus point for the last three years. “Italy are a good team at home, so we know it is going to be tough,” said the full-back, Liam Williams. It is what the players are told to say, a guard against complacency, but even during a period when unusual results are not the exception they were, any team with the pretensions to be champions should be talking themselves up rather than opponents who reckon they are eight years away from being competitive.
Not wanting to tempt fate is one thing, but even a fool in a hurry would not mistake Italy for a good team, at home or anywhere else. They have their moments, but with their foundations built on quicksand, they are unable to sustain pressure in terms of territory and possession and all too quickly get that sinking feeling. They have a spray of potential and they are missing the injured back-rower Jake Polledri, but even with two of their fixtures so far this year against sides who had not previously won a match, England and Ireland, they have not gone beyond 50 minutes before surrendering the bonus point.
Only England have beaten Wales at this stage of the Six Nations in the last 10 years and if the leaders have enjoyed the fortune which jilted them in 2020, they have made the most of it. Although the bulk of the side was part of the successful years under Warren Gatland, they have become more nuanced under his successor, Wayne Pivac. A team that became adept at siege tactics has discovered the art of guerilla warfare, picking off opponents and prospering despite not dominating possession.
What they have retained is the conditioning that enables them to play hard to the end, exemplified by their captain, Alun Wyn Jones, who continues to defy time and the battering his body has taken over 15 years of international rugby. It looked in the autumn as if Wales needed even more than their leader as they slumped to defeats against Scotland, Ireland and England and some of their experienced hardcore looked as if they had reached the Dad’s Army phase of their careers.
Pivac needed results this year with a break clause in his contract at the end of it, and rather than invest in the future he coaxed more out of the likes of George North and Jonathan Davies by playing them out of position: the former at 13 and the latter at inside-centre. “It brings a bit of life back into boys who have been there a long time,” said the head coach, who looked as if he was not so much running out of road but had taken the wrong one when results meant he moved on his defence coach Byron Hayward last November.
Just as Wales were not as poor as their position suggested then, neither are they now the best around. They have captured the moment and, praise be, they are focusing on this Six Nations rather than a World Cup which is more than two years away. The oldest squad in the tournament may need an overhaul, but not in a rush if Pivac can coax more out of players who thought they had experienced it all.
And they have Louis Rees-Zammit on the wing, a latterday JJ Williams who did not sleep for two days after the victory over England in the last round having been denied a try by the bounce of the ball. He will have opportunities to atone in Rome but it is Paris the following weekend when Wales’s fate will be determined and they have yet to lose a grand slam encounter in the Six Nations era.
