Wales’ head coach Warren Gatland Photo: Inpho / www.photosport.nz
Italy dominated proceedings but almost let Wales back into the game before closing out a 22-15 victory in the Six Nations Championship and condemning their visitors to a lowest ever place in the world rankings.
A try from Ange Capuozzo and 17 points off the boot of Tommaso Allan ensured a comfortable lead at a rainy Stadio Olimpico before Wales staged a late comeback with a score from Aaron Wainwright and then a penalty try as two yellow cards in the last minutes saw the Italians reduced to 13 men.
But it was too little, too late for the Welsh, who were triple crown champions only four years ago but have now dropped to 12th place, below Georgia for the first time, in World Rugby's rankings.
The future of veteran coach Warren Gatland is now in serious question, with Wales extending their record losing run to 14 successive games.
Having lost 43-0 to France in the tournament opener, they showed little improvement as they were out-scrummed by their hosts and barely mustered an attack until their 70th-minute try from a line maul, with replacement Wainwright scoring.
Italy's try came after 20 minutes of the first half, with Capuozzo having little room in the corner but managing to avoid the touchline as he successfully dived on to a grubber from flyhalf Pablo Garbisi, whose show and go off the back of a dominant scrum set up the opportunity.
Allan put over the conversion and slotted three first-half penalties for a 16-3 halftime lead as Wales were guilty of unnecessary maul infringements. Ben Thomas kicked over a penalty for Wales.
Striking the crossbar
Italy missed opportunities to extend their lead when Allan fluffed two kickable efforts after the break and Martin Page-Relo struck the crossbar with a long-range effort in the 59th minute.
Allan was eventually successful with yet another penalty in the 61st minute for the first points of the second half, after Wales had been reduced to 14 men when winger Josh Adams was yellow-carded for head contact in a smothering tackle on Garbisi.
"Discipline let us down. We gave them opportunities to kick points and that built the score board to be too high at the end," acknowledged Welsh skipper Jac Morgan.
A rare foray into the Italian half saw Wales score off the lineout but Allan responded by slotting over his fifth penalty with eight minutes left to see the Roman crowd burst into song.
Celebrations were quickly muted, however, when Marco Riccioni was sent to the sin bin and then followed by Dino Lamb as Wales were awarded a penalty try with a minute left.
Hopes of a comeback, however, floundered to give Italy a third win in their last four clashes against Wales.
"Today we showed how practical we can be and how confident we are in what we can do," said Italy captain Michele Lamaro.
"The only goal that we discussed this week was to deliver on pitch for a full 80 minutes."
-Reuters
