{"id":39075,"date":"2020-01-28T13:23:32","date_gmt":"2020-01-28T13:23:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jomec.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/?p=39075"},"modified":"2020-01-28T13:23:32","modified_gmt":"2020-01-28T13:23:32","slug":"flashback-the-first-time-wales-hosted-italy-in-the-six-nations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2020\/01\/28\/flashback-the-first-time-wales-hosted-italy-in-the-six-nations\/","title":{"rendered":"Flashback: the first time Wales hosted Italy in the Six Nations"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><em>Wales open their Grand Slam defence against Italy in Cardiff on Saturday<\/em>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"620\" height=\"465\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2018\/01\/Italy_vs_Wales_Six_Nations_rugby.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-23366\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2018\/01\/Italy_vs_Wales_Six_Nations_rugby.jpg 620w, https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2018\/01\/Italy_vs_Wales_Six_Nations_rugby-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2018\/01\/Italy_vs_Wales_Six_Nations_rugby-500x375.jpg 500w, https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2018\/01\/Italy_vs_Wales_Six_Nations_rugby-293x220.jpg 293w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 620px) 100vw, 620px\" \/><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"620\" height=\"465\" src=\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2018\/01\/Italy_vs_Wales_Six_Nations_rugby.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-23366\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2018\/01\/Italy_vs_Wales_Six_Nations_rugby.jpg 620w, https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2018\/01\/Italy_vs_Wales_Six_Nations_rugby-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2018\/01\/Italy_vs_Wales_Six_Nations_rugby-500x375.jpg 500w, https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2018\/01\/Italy_vs_Wales_Six_Nations_rugby-293x220.jpg 293w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 620px) 100vw, 620px\" \/><\/noscript><figcaption>Wales vs Italy in a previous Six Nations tournament <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n<p>WALES kick off their defence of the Six Nations title on Saturday when they host Italy at the Principality Stadium. \u00a0<br \/>\u00a0<br \/>The fixture is a historically favourable one for the home side, who are on a 13-match unbeaten run against the Azzurri. <\/p>\n\n\n<p>Of those victories, 12 have come in Six Nation tournaments, a run that began after a 23-20 loss in Rome in 2007.\u00a0<br \/>\u00a0<br \/>The Six Nations rivalry began in 2000 when Italy joined the tournament. Wales hosted the Azzurri that year, just as they will on Saturday. \u00a0<br \/>\u00a0<br \/>The Italians produced a shock result in the opening fixture of the 2000 tournament, beating 1999 Five Nations winners Scotland 34-20. \u00a0<br \/>\u00a0<br \/>Wales started the 2000 tournament with a loss after they were ripped apart by France in a 36-3 hammering.\u00a0 \u00a0<br \/>\u00a0<br \/>All the pressure was on Wales when the Italians arrived in Cardiff, with question marks around the solidity of the hosts as a defensive unit. \u00a0<br \/>\u00a0<br \/>However, much to the delight of the home supporters Wales ran out comfortable winners on the day. <\/p>\n\n\n<p>Tries from Scott Quinnell, Allan Bateman and Shane Howarth, along with 27 points from the boot of Neil Jenkins was enough to secure a 47-16 victory. <\/p>\n\n\n<p>There was also a first try for his country for debutant winger Shane Williams. \u00a0<br \/>\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-twitter wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Shane Williams was told he was too small to play rugby. He retired as Wales&#39; leading try scorer. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/MJ4ucO7ST7\">https:\/\/t.co\/MJ4ucO7ST7<\/a><\/p>&mdash; Guinness GB (@GuinnessGB) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/GuinnessGB\/status\/629970321345376257?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">August 8, 2015<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><figcaption>Shane Williams went on to by the record try-scorer for Wales with 58<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n<p>Wilhemus Visser\u2019s second-half try for the visitors and 11 points for flyhalf Diego Dominguez was all the Italians could muster in response.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n<p>Wales fans will be hoping to see a repeat of that result in Saturday\u2019s fixture, with Wayne Pivac looking to mark his first game in the Six Nations as head coach with a victory.&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Wales open their Grand Slam defence against Italy in Cardiff on Saturday&nbsp; WALES kick off their defence of the Six Nations title on Saturday when they host Italy at the Principality Stadium. \u00a0\u00a0The fixture is a historically favourable one for the home side, who are on a 13-match unbeaten run against the Azzurri. Of those victories, 12 have come in Six Nation tournaments, a run that began after a 23-20 loss in Rome in 2007.\u00a0\u00a0The Six Nations rivalry began in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":156,"featured_media":39111,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[151,4],"tags":[152,153,154,155],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-39075","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rugby","category-sport","tag-italy","tag-rbs-six-nations","tag-rugby-2","tag-wales-rugby-union"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Flashback: the first time Wales hosted Italy in the Six Nations - The Cardiffian<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Wales open their Grand Slam defence against Italy in Cardiff on Saturday, with hopes of extending their unbeaten run against the Azzurri.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2020\/01\/28\/flashback-the-first-time-wales-hosted-italy-in-the-six-nations\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Flashback: the first time Wales hosted Italy in the Six Nations - The Cardiffian\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Wales open their Grand Slam defence against Italy in Cardiff on Saturday, with hopes of extending their unbeaten run against the Azzurri.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2020\/01\/28\/flashback-the-first-time-wales-hosted-italy-in-the-six-nations\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Cardiffian\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-01-28T13:23:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2020\/01\/ITALY-WALES-USE.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"620\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"465\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Mike Thomson\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Mike Thomson\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2020\/01\/28\/flashback-the-first-time-wales-hosted-italy-in-the-six-nations\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2020\/01\/28\/flashback-the-first-time-wales-hosted-italy-in-the-six-nations\/\",\"name\":\"Flashback: the first time Wales hosted Italy in the Six Nations - 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