Last season’s Grand Slam winners Wales come into their fourth Six Nations match of the season away to Italy today not just looking for a victory, but also to put points on the board.
The reigning champions are playing a bit of catch-up having been beaten by France in Paris and knowing that in order to arrive at next week’s crunch clash against Ireland in Cardiff with a chance of retaining their crown, they need to run in some scores at the Stadio Flaminio.
One reason for that is Ireland wracked up an impressive 38-9 victory in Rome last month, which sees them holding a superior points difference of 23 over Wales.
The Welsh cannot be expected to roll Ireland over in Cardiff, so if the Irish beat Scotland this weekend, Wales will need to win by at least 10 to 15 points more to put themselves in a championship-winning position.
So it made it all the more surprising when coach Warren Gatland made nine changes from the France game two weeks ago.
Among those he has picked is Ospreys’ James Hook at fly-half in place of Scarlet’s Stephen Jones.
However Hook is confident he and his teammates can still produce the goods.
“There was probably a little bit of surprise about the number of changes made to the side, but I don’t really think you could call it a gamble on Warren’s part,” Hook said. “He has faith in all of us as players or he wouldn’t have made these changes. We made too many mistakes in the French game [two weeks ago]. There were four errors in quick succession leading up to one try, yet we could still have won the game. So against Italy, it will be about us cutting out the mistakes. Italy are maybe not as gifted as other teams in the Six Nations, but they are a gutsy side, especially at home. They give 100 percent every game. I’ve already heard someone talk about points differences, but we have to get out there and win the game first.”
For Italy, it has almost already got to the stage where they are playing for pride following crushing defeats to England (36-11), Ireland (38-9) and Scotland (26-6).
Their last two games are against Wales and France, both at home, and Italy and Stade Francais center Mirco Bergamasco knows that they cannot afford to make the same mistakes they have in their previous matches.
“Wales and France are the two teams that play the ball the most in their hands, so it will be important to play at 100 percent,” Bergamasco said.
Last year in Cardiff, Italy suffered their heaviest defeat of the campaign, going down 47-8.
OUT AGAINST INDONESIA: Taiwan reached the semi-finals at the tournament for the first time by defeating Denmark, with Chou Tien-chen beating Viktor Axelsen Taiwan yesterday crashed out of the Thomas Cup team competition in Chengdu, China, but achieved their best result at the top-tier badminton event by reaching the semi-finals. Indonesia were too good in the semis, winning 3-0 to advance to today’s final against China, who eliminated Malaysia 3-1. In the opening singles of the men’s team clash at the Hi-Tech Zone Sports Center Gymnasium 2, Anthony Ginting defeated Taiwan’s Chou Tien-chen 21-18, 21-19 in 51 minutes, which put a huge hole in Taiwan’s aspirations to perhaps even make the final. In the men’s doubles, Fajar Alfian and Muhammad Ardianto downed Lee Yang and Wang
NO DOUBT: Spurs star Wembanyama was unanimously selected as NBA Rookie of the Year, winning all 99 votes to become the first Frenchman to capture the honor The Minnesota Timberwolves on Monday night produced a dominant defensive display to seize a commanding 2-0 lead in their best-of-seven playoff series against the Denver Nuggets with a 106-80 road victory. The third-seeded Timberwolves harassed Denver relentlessly to claim a second straight win over the NBA champions as the series heads back to Minneapolis for Game 3 on Friday. Karl-Anthony Towns and Anthony Edwards scored 27 points apiece, but the star of the show was Minnesota’s suffocating defensive effort, which knocked Denver out of their stride almost from the tip-off. The Timberwolves finished with 11 steals and 12 blocks, in sharp contrast to
Top-ranked Iga Swiatek on Saturday came through “the most intense and crazy final” she has ever contested to avenge her loss to Aryna Sabalenka in last year’s Madrid Open final with a grueling three hour, 11 minute victory in the Spanish capital. Coming back from 1-3 down in the decider and saving three match points in total, Swiatek claimed a 7-5, 4-6, 7-6 (9/7) victory to secure the Madrid Open trophy for the first time. “Well, who is going to say now that women’s tennis is boring, right?” Swiatek said. Swiatek, who picked up the 20th title of her career, and ninth at
One of Malaysia’s top soccer clubs has pulled out of today’s season-opening Charity Shield after a spate of assaults, including an acid attack, on players in the country. It leaves the kickoff of Malaysia’s season this weekend under a cloud following the unprecedented acts of violence against players, which have left the country shocked and angry. Authorities said they have imposed tighter security, but Selangor said that they would not play in the showpiece curtain-raiser against Malaysian Super League champions Johor Darul Ta’zim (JDT) citing “a series of criminal incidents and recent threats.” Selangor and Malaysia winger Faisal Halim is in intensive care