Your rugby headlines on Sunday February 26 as the dust settles from the Wales versus England Six Nations showdown
Gatland and Wales ready for Wooden Spoon clash
Warren Gatland will spend the coming days trying to get his selection mix right after admitting Wales are locked in a Wooden Spoon battle with Italy.
Wales slumped to a third straight defeat at the start of a Six Nations campaign for the first time since 2007 as England marched on Cardiff and left with a 20-10 win.
Following on from losses to Ireland and Scotland, it leaves Wales heading to Rome on March 11 knowing defeat is likely to condemn them to a first Wooden Spoon in 20 years.
Italy have also lost their opening three games, but there is renewed optimism in the Azzurri camp and they are ready to target the clash with Gatland's men as one they can win.
Gatland has time to ponder what to do with his team as he decides which members of the old guard to recall or stick with, and which younger players he needs to place belief in as part of the Wales rebuild.
"We have looked at a few players, but you need also a little bit of continuity as well in selection," said the Wales coach.
"We wanted to find out a bit about players within the squad and we kind of feel having done that in games and training we are next thinking about cohesion as much as anything going forward, particularly for the Italy game which becomes pretty important
"The last thing you want to do is get the Wooden Spoon. That’s got to be our focus from that.
"We’ve got older players still holding their hands up and some younger players who need some time. We’ve not got that group in the middle who have 30 or so caps. We’ve got to marry the two together and start thinking about that going forward.
"Some of those youngsters need to be given more time together. You can’t coach experience."
Wales v Italy is 'massive'
Former Wales skipper Sam Warburton says the clash with Italy has suddenly become "massive" for Warren Gatland's men.
Warburton feels Wales are "quite far off it at the moment", whereas he labels the Azzurri a joy to watch.
"It's not going well, Wales just aren't scoring," he said while on BBC punditry duties. "You can't use the excuse of what is going on off the field, Wales are quite far off it at the moment.
"Wales didn't play much in attack and England won the breakdown battle, even if they weren't winning ball they were having players in there making a mess of the ruck and slowing it down for Wales. Because England won that breakdown battle, they were more powerful than Wales were, that was the game for me."
As for Wales' next fixture Warburton said: "Wales away to Italy is a massive game, that is going to be enormous for the Italians, Wales still don't know what their best XV is."
England scrum-half Danny Care, on co-commentary duties, said: "The third loss for Wales of this Six Nations, they look lost on the field, they have got to go work on some stuff in the training ground this week."
Shanklin: 'We've got to be scoring more points'
Former Wales international Tom Shanklin has also bemoaned Wales' poor ratio of converting entry into opposition 22 into points.
"Wales have got a really poor ratio. We've only scored one try per game in this campaign... we've got to be scoring more points than that," he said.
"The attitude is great from start to finish, but tactically they got it wrong. They're trying to play too tight, the game opened up when they played a bit wider whether it was Tipuric or Faletau hitting those angles. When they went away from that, when they started to go short and closer to England's back-row they became unstuck."
Farrell relieved as Ireland win 'proper Test match'
Andy Farrell insists Test matches should be anxious affairs after depleted Ireland came through a major scare to keep their Grand Slam hopes going with an unconvincing 34-20 bonus-point win over Italy.
The world's top-ranked nation were well below their fluent best in Rome and head coach Farrell was pictured biting his nails during a tense second half in which the fearless hosts moved to within four points.
Mack Hansen's second try of the afternoon, following scores from stand-in skipper James Ryan, Hugo Keenan and Bundee Aki, ultimately extinguished Azzurri resistance nine minutes from time.
Head coach Farrell was satisfied to avoid an upset and remain in contention for a Six Nations clean sweep but conceded it was far from plain sailing.
He said: "Was I biting my nails? I shouldn't have done that. It was a tough match, a proper Test match.
"You know when they get the field position that they're craving that they're going to be unbelievably dangerous. Which Irish fan wouldn't have been biting their nails? That's what Test matches are about and that's how it should be. To come away with the bonus-point win, we'll take that and move on."
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