By Sam Hill
Wales ended their 15-match losing run in the Six Nations with an emphatic 31-17 victory at the Principality Stadium.
It was Wales’ first victory in the tournament since beating the Azzurri 29-17 in Rome in 2023, and their first home win in the Championship since defeating Scotland 20-17 in 2022.
Italy had arrived in Cardiff on course for their best Six Nations campaign in history, but fell flat in the Welsh capital and had to settle for their two victories over Scotland and England.
Wales were well deserving of their victory. They built up a commanding early lead and dominated the opening 50 minutes, which ultimately proved enough to fend off a late Italian fightback.
From the first whistle it was Steve Tandy’s side who started with intent, with strong carrying from captain Dewi Lake setting their stall out early.
Louis Rees-Zammit then sent a long kick that Alessandro Fusco collected, but Mee produced an excellent kick chase and turned the ball over. The Welsh crowd began to rise in volume as the hosts continued on the front foot.
Wales won the lineout and, after two strong phases, Aaron Wainwright crashed over under the posts for the opening points.
Dan Edwards made no mistake with the straightforward conversion and Welsh confidence began to grow.
With ball in hand the hosts were playing with freedom and remained firmly on the front foot. Wales won a scrum penalty and once again bravely opted for the corner instead of a straightforward kick at goal.
Inside the Italian 22 they powered over through their driving lineout maul, with Wainwright sealing his second of the afternoon. Edwards converted from a tricky angle to make it 14-0.
Just five minutes later Wales remarkably landed their third try of the game. Another forced turnover allowed Tandy’s men to kick to the corner once more and they powered over yet again from a strong lineout maul.
Edwards converted to give Wales a magnificent 21-0 lead inside the opening half hour as Italy struggled to cope with the hosts’ physicality.
To their credit, Wales did not take their foot off the accelerator and within three minutes of the second half they had secured their bonus point.
More excellent carrying from Lake and Mee created space for Edwards, who ran a magnificent line to secure Wales’ fourth try.
The fly-half added the extras to continue his perfect record from the tee.
After a poor goal-line dropout from Italy, Edwards saw himself with time and space to land a drop goal from 40 yards out to seal his sixteenth points of the contest.
Wales were in dreamland. With just under fifty minutes on the clock they held an incredible 31-0 lead.
To their credit, Gonzalo Quesada’s side refused to leave the Principality Stadium without a fight.
They crossed through substitutes Tommaso Di Bartolomeo and Tommaso Allan late in the contest, while Paolo Garbisi scored in the final play of the match to pull back seventeen points for the visitors.
Italy also had two tries disallowed in the final half hour after being short of the line and tackled into touch, but the fightback ultimately came too late.
For Italy it represented a disappointing day. Falling 31-0 behind to the wooden sppon holders after 50 minutes left them with far too much to do, and despite a late surge it was a third defeat of their championship.
The Azzurri entered the fixture as heavy favourites and were on course for their greatest Six Nations campaign if they secured a third win. However, were forced to settle with victories over England and Scotland earlier in the tournament.
It brought a different pressure in Cardiff, and the Italians ultimately could not deliver despite what has been an encouraging campaign under Quesada overall.
For Wales, however, the victory had been coming. They had pushed Scotland all the way at the Principality Stadium and lost narrowly to Ireland in Dublin last Friday.
Today finally provided the breakthrough, Steve Tandy registered his second victory as Wales head coach and his first in the Six Nations.
This will undoubtedly lift a huge weight off the shoulders of the Welsh squad and provide a welcome confidence boost ahead of the inaugural Nations Championship this summer.