Rugby / Bunker Nuggets

Italy v Wales

Wales will be looking to get back to winning ways as their eight match winning run came to an end in Paris two weeks ago. Italy are looking for their first win in this seasons Championship  

Fixture History

·         Last season Wales were comfortable 47-8 home winners over the Italians which ended a two match run against the Azzurri without a win

·         Last time they met in Rome the Italians were narrow 23-20 winners which followed on from an 18 all draw at the Millennium Stadium the year before

·         In the four matches in Rome the series is level with two wins each

·         Overall in the nine match series Wales lead with six wins, the Italians have two and one match has been drawn

·         Wales biggest win and highest score in Italy was in their 38-8 win back in 2005

·         The Italian’s highest scored and biggest win was their 30-22 success in the 2003 season

·         Winger Shane Williams has scored seven of his 16 6 Nations tries against Italy in six appearances, in fact 13 of his 16 tries have come against Italy and Scotland, with just one each against France, Ireland and England 

Current Season

·         Italy are the lowest scorers with 28 points and have conceded the most points, 100

·         Stephen Jones with 29 is the second highest scorer in this seasons Championship with 29, three behind Ireland’s Ronan O’Gara   

·         Jones has a kicking strike of 66.67% with 10 of his 15 kicks finding the target

·         For Italy Luke McLean has an 85.71% strike rate with six of his seven kicks on target spread over three matches this season and at 21 years and 271 days is the 6^th youngest player to play in this season 6 Nations   

·         Italy have three of the seven youngest players in this seasons 6 Nations 

·         Leigh Halfpenny, the youngest player in this season’s 6 Nations, is the leading try scorer for either side with two tries

·         Wales have scored six tries in their three matches whilst the Italians have managed just the one

·         Italy have conceded most tries this season with 12, seven more than Wales, four have come in the final quarter a period where the Welsh have only conceded once

·         Only four tries have been scored in the first quarter in the Championship and three have come against Italy

Italy have picked up two sin bins against one by Wales