Wales vs Italy September 5th Cardiff

First topic message reminder :

WALES v ITALY at Millennium Stadium, Cardiff
Saturday 5th September 2015 – Kick Off: 5pm
Referee: Jérôme Garcès (FFR)


TV Coverage: Live on BBC Two Wales


Tickets for the Wales v Italy warm-up match are available to purchase at the official WRU eTicketing website with prices from £20 – £35.



History

Italy and Wales have played each other at rugby union since 1994. A total of 22 matches have been played, with Wales winning 19, Italy winning two and one drawn match.[1]



Wales Team

15 L Halfpenny
14 A Cuthbert
13 C Allen
12 S Williams
11 G North
10 D Biggar
9 R Webb
1 G Jenkins
2 K Owens
3 T Francis
4 J Ball
5  D Day
6 J King
7 S Warburton
8 T Faletau.

Reps: 16 K Dacey, 17 P James, 18 A Jarvis, 19 L Charteris,  20 R Moriarty,  21 G Davies,  22 R Priestland,  23 M Morgan.





Italian Team

15 Andrea Masi
14 Leonardo Sarto
13 Luca Morisi
12 Gonzalo Garcia
11 Giovanbattista Venditti
10 Tommaso Allan
9 Edoardo Gori
1 Michele Rizzo
2 Leonardo Ghiraldini
3 Martin Castrogiovanni
4 Quintin Geldenhuys
5 Josh Furno
6 Alessandro Zanni
7Francesco Minto
8 Sergio Parisse (capt)

Replacements: 16 Andrea Manici, 17 Matias Aguero, 18 Lorenzo Cittadini, 19 Valerio Bernabo', 20 Samula Vunisa, 21 Guglielmo Palazzani, 22 Carlo Canna, 23 Luke McLean.

Cuthbert

Oh dear, not sure how Cuthbert is still involved, it shows how little depth and experience we have on the wing,...hope Liam Williams is back soon.

Not a great start but one of the luckiest players to make the squad...!

Not a good start :/

Looks like Scott Williams has put that bad first game behind him, he was good last week and is again showing his skills and creativity.

And to think everyone was complaining about Priestland being a confidence player...

Poor old Cuthbert

He has a face like Droopy the Dog at the moment.

Looks like we now might have to bring Cuthbert off. It hasn't been his day so far, and I doubt it will be his day at any point in the world cup.

Our scrums have been really bad in the last few games. The lad who could make a difference is out of the squad...

So many knock-ons, not helpful with the Italian scrum going well.

mikey_dragon wrote:Our scrums have been really bad in the last few games. The lad who could make a difference is out of the squad...

Henson?

Uh oh...

F*CK!

Rhys Webb is down and it looks really bad

I think it's pretty serious and will keep him out of the RWC. Hopefully Davies stays fit and we call Phillips back in.

Has Gareth Davies started a game for Wales?

Him and Biggar will have to gel very quickly now :/

I know this isn't going to be a popular question but did anyone else think there was a hint of a forward pass in the build up to Wales try - after the initial break when the 12 passed back inside?

Please tell me that is not North down.

Thankfully not, though sympathies to whoever it was

wales606 wrote:F*CK!

Rhys Webb is down and it looks really bad

not good - you have to feel gutted for him ...

Real depressing game now, no matter what happens really. The atmosphere is dead in the stadium too by the look of it.

wales606 wrote:Real depressing game now, no matter what happens really. The atmosphere is dead in the stadium too by the look of it.

I agree

Neither side will be pushing now..

The SH teams have nothing to worry about watching the two games today. Cuthbert is going from bad to worse.

Cuthbert is just sh*t let's be honest. He's fast becoming the next Priestland.

Jesus Cuthbert

Halftime

Positives: Warburton and S.Williams look good

Negatives: Everything else.

Need to get some pace and rhythm in this game, need L.Williams back and a miracle for Webb.

Italy playing well in the first half. Wales not looking so good.

I do hope Webb is allright, will be a shame if he misses out on the RWC.

Wales only 3 points behind, but rearly have to step up in the second half if they are going to win.

The SH teams will be concerned with England's peforrmance.

wales606 wrote:Halftime

Positives: Warburton and S.Williams look good

Negatives: Everything else.

Need to get some pace and rhythm in this game, need L.Williams back and a miracle for Webb.

It's obvious that Rhys Webbs injury has had a massive psychological effect on the lads

Think Davies will step up and hopefully lessen the blow of Webb going out. Surely Cuthbert has to go! He adds nothing and getting to be a blwdi liability.
Scrum not functioning and second row not looking good in the loose.
Scott is playing well though.

Davies is a talented scrum half.

maestegmafia wrote:

wales606 wrote:Halftime

Positives: Warburton and S.Williams look good

Negatives: Everything else.

Need to get some pace and rhythm in this game, need L.Williams back and a miracle for Webb.

It's obvious that Rhys Webbs injury has had a massive psychological effect on the lads

Yeah, it was just going through the motions until halftime. They need to get something going in the second half though or they will be going into the world cup on a downer even if they win.

overlordofthewest wrote:Think Davies will step up and hopefully lessen the blow of Webb going out. Surely Cuthbert has to go! He adds nothing and getting to be a blwdi liability.
Scrum not functioning and second row not looking good in the loose.
Scott is playing well though.

Spot on with my thoughts.

Allen also looks crap.

wrfc1980 wrote:The SH teams will be concerned with England's peforrmance.

Except for NZ and SA.

overlordofthewest wrote:Think Davies will step up and hopefully lessen the blow of Webb going out. Surely Cuthbert has to go! He adds nothing and getting to be a blwdi liability.
Scrum not functioning and second row not looking good in the loose.
Scott is playing well though.

I agree - except that I think the locks do look good.

What on earth are Wales doing?

So far this game Fiji will be rubbing their hands together and will more than fancy themselves against wales

Well the only thing this game is doing is lining the WRU coffers, with ticket sales and promoting the second strip.

As for RWC warmup, it's done nothing positive. Confidence will be down after this rubbish performance, loss of first class player (Rhys Webb). Let's hope we don't lose anyone else to injury...

Not sure I can watch thus much more

Intensive of a early-season club game atm

wrfc1980 wrote:So far this game Fiji will be rubbing their hands together and will more than fancy themselves against wales

I think they already were doing that before this game. I doubt they will beat us though.

Clancy is yet to penalise Italy for driving early at the scrum... Big contributing factor to this dull affair.

I'm not sure how much you can read into these games tbh - England looked a lot better this week than they did last week and Wales looked better last week than they have done this week.

When was the last time Wales had the ball for more than 5 phases?

Oh look, another scrum

Heaf wrote:I'm not sure how much you can read into these games tbh - England looked a lot better this week than they did last week and Wales looked better last week than they have done this week.

Yeah, this game won't have much baring on how Wales perform against England, other than the injuries.

Jesus, so many errors

It may force Garland to play a stronger team than he would have liked against fiji

And this is why I never buy tickets to a game George Clancy is in charge of...

These scrums are a mess

maestegmafia wrote:And this is why I never buy tickets to a game George Clancy is in charge of...

Was just thinking that

I've never liked clown shoes as a ref ...

Im pretty sure Clancy made his decision after he had blown then

Ross Moriarty just proved a big point...