Six Nations, the Saturday of the verdicts: Italy in Wales for the second victory

The final “Super Saturday”, where all three matches are concentrated, concludes the Tik Tok Six Nations women’s rugby team tomorrow, April 30th. Italy opens the dance in Cardiff at 13 against Wales. Avoiding the wooden spoon by beating Scotland 20-13, the goal is the second victory as happened in other 5 editions (2011, 2013, 2014, 2016, 2018) avoiding the last place in the standings, in case Scotland succeeds in the enterprise to win in Ireland in the last match of the day, at 21. In the middle (15.15) the direct confrontation between France and England which will decide the winner of the tournament. In the standings England and France 20 points, Wales 10, Ireland 5, Italy 4, Scotland 2.

The opponent

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Italy have lost only once from Wales in the last 7 years (20-8 in 2017 in Aberavon), compared to 5 wins, one draw and the 2021 match missed for Covid. Establishing yourself this time appears to be more difficult than in the past. The Welsh are in a phase of reconstruction and relaunch, as evidenced by the two victories of the tournament. The blues have collected less than hoped in terms of results and attacking play. The test will be an important test in light of the preparation that awaits the Italians in view of the World Cup in September, for which the rivals did not qualify.

Package Challenge

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“Wales are a powerful and heavy team – commented the expert right prop Lucia Gaia, 80 appearances, analyzing the challenge of the scrum packs – we forward can not count on facing them only on the physical challenge. We will have to be as precise and technical as possible . In training we have focused on improving the static phases of the scrum. They are higher than the other packs we have encountered so far, so in the engagement we will have to try to be even lower. In touch we can count on the fact that they are not very reactive, so if we work clean we will be able to win the ball “.

Direct comparisons

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Moving on to the analysis of the direct comparisons (12 wins to 7 for the Welsh, but 7-6 for the Italians in the Six Nations) Gai explains: “With Wales it’s always an interesting game, because we manage to have a fairly balanced game. It’s an almost equal challenge, you have to fight from start to finish. In the early years we couldn’t bring home the result. While over time we managed to express our game to the fullest and we manage to win games. We haven’t met him since. 2020 due to a pandemic. We have seen in this Six Nations that they have grown, improved, we can’t wait to face them to confirm the positive result with Scotland “.

Training

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Few changes compared to the team lined up against Scotland: in the forward department, Silvia Turani will be on the field from 1 ‘and Melissa Bettoni will be hooker again; Elisa Giordano returns to number 8, Ilaria Arrighetti is moved to 7. In the direction Madia opening (30th cap) and Barattin (106th) scrum median. 15 Manuela Furlan (C); 14 Aura Muzzo, 13 Michela Sillari, 12 Beatrice Rigoni, 11 Maria Magatti; 10 Veronica Madia, 9 Sara Barattin; 8 Elisa Giordano, 7 Ilaria Arrighetti, 6 Beatrice Veronese; 5 Giordana Duca, 4 Valeria Fedrighi; 3 Lucia Gai, 2 Melissa Bettoni, 1 Silvia Turani. Available: 16 Vittoria Vecchini, 17 Gaia Maris, 18 Sara Seye, 19 Sara Tounesi, 20 Isabella Locatelli, 21 Francesca Granzotto (newcomer), 22 Alyssa D’Incà, 23 Vittoria Ostuni Minuzzi.