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Wales take first win in the 2024 Women's Six Nations on final day
Wales and Italy kicked off Super Saturday at the Principality Stadium with the home side recording their first win of the 2024 competition with a 22-20 scoreline.
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In the first half, one try apiece from both sides through Carys Phillips and Vittoria Ostuni Minuzzi followed in quick succession, and the only points that separated the two sides at the break were those provided by the boot of Beatrice Rigoni.
Gwenllian Pyrs scored first in the second half, but the scores were levelled in the 55th minute when Francesca Granzotto crossed for Italy.
Emma Stevanin put the visitors ahead, but Sisilia Tuipulotu’s try complemented by Lleucu George’s conversion sealed the much-needed win for Ioan Cunningham’s side.
The result means that Wales will still finish at the bottom of the table with Italy moving up to fourth, but Italy’s position may well change by the end of the afternoon.
In addition, Wales, who competed in WXV 1 last year, will face Rugby Europe Championship winners Spain in a play-off match, held in Wales in June (date TBC), to determine whether they will be in WXV 2 or WXV 3 this autumn.
It was the first time the Welsh women’s team have played a standalone Test match at the Principality, and they had a record crowd of 10,592, beating the 8,862-strong record for a women’s standalone match which was set the year prior at Cardiff Arms Park.
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Italy’s Lucia Gai became only the second Italian woman to reach 100 caps for her country when she came off the bench in the second half to replace Sara Seye.
Wales enjoyed early possession and looked as if they were going to score in the first five minutes as they worked through the phases, but the Italian defence stood firm, eventually forcing a knock-on.
Wales struck first, in what was their first try in the opening quarter of any match they had played in the 2024 Women’s Six Nations, as the ball travelled from Phillips to Alisha Butchers at the front of the lineout before it was returned to the hooker to cross in the corner, taking Italy by surprise in the process.
Within seconds of the restart, Italy got themselves on the scoreboard as Alyssa D’Incà ripped the ball in contact to win the turnover before setting Ostuni Minuzzi free to dance down the touchline to level the scores, and Rigoni’s conversion put them ahead after 18 minutes.
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George set Wales up well with an excellent kick to the corner after the half-hour mark, but the throw not being straight gave possession back to Italy, however, the visitors subsequently knocked the ball on when taking the lineout which followed. Wales missed another opportunity when they gave away the scrum penalty in the red zone.
Rigoni extended Italy’s lead by a further three points after Wales gave away a penalty in front of the posts for not rolling away. The visitors headed into the break with a 10-5 lead.
Wales had the first word in the second half to level the score after three minutes as Pyrs crossed the line from close range with a fantastic carry, and Keira Bevan’s subsequent conversion put the home side back ahead.
Their lead was bolstered in the 51st minute as Bevan added three points to their tally, taking their advantage to five points.
This lead remained for only four minutes as Italy responded with a slick attacking phase from the Italian backs setting up Granzotto to cross in the corner, but Rigoni was unable to convert so the scores sat level.
The Italian backs added flare to proceedings once more as they went back ahead in the final ten minutes as Stevanin added their third, again unconverted to leave the score in the balance with only five points the difference.
George was monumental for Wales, kicking multiple impressive 50-22 kicks to shift the momentum, but the set piece failed them yet again and they were unable to convert in the red zone.
Wales did manage to string together a positive passage of play in the phases that followed to work to within metres, and an Italian knock-on fell into the hands of Evans who crossed the line.
It was deemed not to be a try, but Wales had the scrum on five metres from which superstar Tuipulotu muscled over the line under the posts with the decisive try to level the scores before George added the conversion to put them ahead.
Try-scorer Stevanin was shown a yellow card in the dying seconds for making head contact, and Wales held on to take the memorable victory at the Principality Stadium.
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Comments on RugbyPass
Getting rid of the Dupont Law is a good thing and ought to have been done months ago! Officially getting rid of the croc roll is a good thing. The law about no scrums from a short arm is well intended in terms of speeding the game up but it’s an overreaction to a clever yet calculated gamble that could have blow up in South Africa’s face if they conceded a penalty from the scrum that was set after Willemse took claimed the mark in the World Cup QF.
52 Go to commentsRassie The GOAT
8 Go to commentsOf their 5 big matches in RWC Scotland and NZ were the easiest. They took a 12-3 lead against NZ and after the red decided it was best to hold the lead and take chances that came. None came and it was tight but they dug a lot deeper in the other two knock out matches. They had trounced NZ in Twickenham in a fixture that NZ must now regret. Psychology was clearly with SA in the final as a result.
8 Go to commentsMy favourite line/exchanges from Chasing the Sun 2. News headline: “SA. The last hurdle in ABs World Cup glory”. Something like that. “You’re all just a hurdle. A hop, skip and a jump”. Coming from Rassie and Jacque. Basically - nobody thinks you’re going to win. You’re just a pushover team. Nobody respects you. When the camera shows the players faces, you can see the effect. You can see the rev meters (die moer metertjies) firing up. Mitchell said he felt it prior to the 19 final. He said to Eddie watching the teams warming up that it was going to be a tough day at the office. Wave a red flag in front of South African, and you can expect a reaction. This is not unique - many teams rev themselves. And Bok teams in particular. With horrific consequences (discipline, poor thinking under pressure) because that’s the drawback to using emotion right? But what this Bok team does better than many since 2007 is channel the emotion and stay on task. Despite the emotion. Why, because while Rassie might play mind games - he talks about creating a safe environment. Listen to his recent honorary doctorate acceptance speech. While he uses psychology he creates psychological safety. He’s a damn fine coach. Can’t wait for Pretoria. It’s going to be a hummer.
8 Go to commentsWhat Rassie does for SA is big. It has helped people to unite and see we can win with the right people in place.
8 Go to commentsTerrible conditions for young players to express themselves just enjoy it guys. As a saffa great to see Ausie youth looking good. Wow SA have some great talent also.
2 Go to commentsYes, another example of French tv directors ensuring that incidents like this are swiftly glossed over for the benefit of their teams…
1 Go to commentsThe prospect of the club match ups across hemispheres is surely appetising for everyone. The reality however, may prove to be slightly different. There are currently two significant driving forces that have delivered to same teams consistently to the latter champions cup stages for years now. The first of those is the yawning gap in finances, albeit delivered by different routes. In France it’s wealthy private owners operating with a higher salary cap by some distance compared to England. In Ireland it’s led by a combination of state tax relief support, private Leinster academy funding and IRFU control - the provincial budgets are not equal! This picture is not going to change anytime soon. The second factor is the EPCR competition rules. You don’t need a PhD. in advanced statistical analysis from oxbridge to see the massive advantage bestowed upon the home team through every ko round of the tournament. The SA teams will gain the opportunity for home ko ties in due course but that could actually polarise the issue even further, just look at their difficulties playing these ties in Europe and then reverse them for the opposition travelling to SA. Other than that, the picture here is unlikely to change either, with heavyweight vested interests controlling the agenda. So what does all this point to for the club world championship? Well the financial differential between the nh and sh teams is pretty clear. And the travel issues and sporting challenge for away teams are significantly exacerbated beyond those already seen in the EPCR tournaments. So while the prospect of those match ups may whet our rugby appetites, I’m very much still to be convinced the reality will live up to expectations…
1 Go to commentsThe manipulative and cynical Erasmus….
8 Go to commentsWe see you World Rugby….we see you🤡😏
52 Go to commentsBoks are lucky to have a player of the calibre of PSDT in their ranks😍
7 Go to commentsI really like what the boks have done with bringing Vermeulen into their coaching setup. Perhaps they would have gone to france anyway, but Lawes and Farrell could at least have been offered assistant coaching roles. Lawes could probably aptly fill the brief (breakdown, contact skills, and handling) just given to Strawbridge; and Farrell could be a pretty good like for like replacement for Sinfield when he leaves. I probably wouldn’t want them in the national team set up just yet, but it would be good to see strings pulled to either get May, Youngs, Cole, & Care player-coaching roles in the premiership, or to move them into the under 20s coaching staff.
2 Go to commentsSo spiteful that the Springboks won again, they just had to change the laws so that they would stand a chance.
52 Go to commentsWhy would Eben lie? The guy has achieved so much. He saw it as arrogance. Any normal person who plays against the ABs year in and year out would have the same thoughts. Why even talk about the final when you have the biggest game of your lives next week in a stage you have never gotten passed? Rugly is simple in SA. Have fun but the most important thing is respect. I’m not buying any of this misinterpreted nonsense. Eben isn’t English, but no one during that interview was asking what did he say? He's speaking and therefore his understanding is perfectly fine. It was an arrogant thing to say, esp for a team that has never been to a final, never mind a semi. You guys up north can interpret it in a different way if you wish, maybe that s why you don’t win the biggest tournaments.
154 Go to comments> with Sky TV in New Zealand saying it has seen an 11 per cent lift in overall viewership this year. It’s easy for these kiwi “journalists” to throw around meaningless numbers to make it seem that things are improving, but if you look at the stats behind this 11 percent it says that after 10 rounds of rugby there is only a paltry 160k cumulative viewers in total.. That is on average 16k viewers watching a single round of Super Rugby. I very much doubt any of the other numbers that Gregor so proudly “reports” on.
38 Go to commentsGoode is a Prop that played Flyhalf…. Who gives a Sh@#t what he thinks anyway!
154 Go to commentsOne would hope when a player of such caliber is approached for transfer is traversed a lot more carefully. The question I ask, “is the players agent raising red flags in the first instance of contact”. By what I read assumptions are made by nzr based on player welfare provided to them. So what is that? Is it a wholistic approach where family balance is taken into account. Because thay’s what’s in the mix when players go off shore. I realize the money is a huge factor but when negotiations are initiated is nzr involved. As Lendrum says having our best players available is paramount to our success So here’s hoping they are effectively communicating.
4 Go to commentsPSTD, I salute you.
7 Go to commentsWhy don't they just give up on scrums and lineouts, cut the number of players to 13, and call the game ‘rugby league’? These idiots are determined to destroy the game as we know it, and instead of ‘attracting youngsters to the game’ as Beaumont suggests, it’ll deter a lot of the less skilled, maybe overweight kids who it is perfect for. World Rugby is detestable. And as for the 20 minute ‘red’ - why not teach the players to tackle better? (Like the current tackle height trials are supposed to do, but will probably be squashed by the NZRU as usual). I despair for the union game, I really do.
52 Go to commentsHere’s hoping the emphasis on how the tmo interfaces on game infractions is taken into account more seriously than what was adjudicated during the 23 wc. That was a shambles, plus Barnes the abs ref never contested some of the calls, something he’s known for. And then we're left with wr opologizing after the game that smith’s try was legit. I was even more pizzed. And as for the red card if the infringement is clearly intentional foul then the individual is out of the game and after 20mins the bench replacement comes on. So, there’s then the degree of seriousness taken into account within the 20min stand down.
38 Go to comments