Wales wary of Italy threats

By Joe Mansfield.

BOTH Thomas Francis and Jonathan Davies refused to overlook Italy and their dangerous half-backs ahead of this weekends Six Nations match.

A bonus point victory on Saturday could be enough for Wales to be crowned Six Nations champions if results elsewhere go in their favour. Contrastingly, if Wales were to lose, their hopes of a 13^th Grand Slam victory would be extinguished.

Wayne Pivac’s men have been flying high in this year’s championship with three straight victories securing their fifth Triple Crown in the Six Nations era.

It is worth noting that every time Wales have won the Triple Crown since the Championship moved from five teams to six, they have also completed the Grand Slam.

Despite those good omens and the fact that Italy have failed to win a game in the competition for six years, Wales are remaining vigilant. The caution in the Welsh camp is warranted as they can afford no slip-ups against the Azzurri.

The Italian pairing of Stephen Varney and Paolo Garbisi was highlighted as an area of focus by Francis and Davies during today’s press conference.

Jonathan Davies captained Wales on his last trip to Italy and understands the threats they possess.

“We are giving Italy a huge amount of respect. They have threatened throughout the tournament and they have improved. They have threats at 9 and 10 who are their game makers, they are playing with their head up, they’re looking for mismatches.” Davies said.

“They are looking at the pictures that the defence has given and looking for people to jump out of the defensive structure. Our big focus this week is making sure communication is up, identifying their threats and keeping to our structure.

“I think if we keep to our structure and don’t go outside of that and keep our discipline, I think we will be in a good place” he added.

Francis echoed his teammate’s thoughts as he said “They (Italy) have developed their game a lot recently, it used to be a big battle up front and maybe not as much of an attacking threat, but with their young 9 and 10 they have got a real attacking ability now as well, so it’s going to be a big challenge for us.”

The threat posed by the scrumhalf and outside half has clearly been a focus of the Welsh preparation. But what exactly is that threat?

Garbisi is an attacking 20-year-old fly-half who oozes talent, accompanied by a strong team and good coaching he could be one of Europe’s best in the future. Here’s a video to show what the Benetton stand-off is capable of:

Then there is Stephen Varney, a 19-year-old who swaggers around the pitch as if the Test match arena was a playground. He exudes confidence and has an attacking intent that strikes fear into opposing defences. The young half-back plays his club rugby alongside Welsh flyer Louis Rees-Zammit at Gloucester.

Varney grew up in Pembrokeshire but qualifies to play for Italy through his mother Valeria. Jonathan Davies also hails from West Wales and spoke highly of the young scrumhalf.

“He’s very dangerous, he’s quick around the ruck area and he wants to see if players will move out of their defensive structure” said Davies.

“He’s young and full of confidence and after watching his games in the campaign I can see he is very talented.

“So, we need to make sure our defensive structure is very good on Saturday because he can be a very good player for them,” he added.

Kick off for Italy vs Wales is at 2:15pm(GMT) on Saturday.