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Follow our rugby betting tips as Wales travel to Italy in their second Six Nations match
Wales travel to Italy on Saturday desperate to put last weekend’s thrashing by France behind them and finally get their Six Nations campaign up and running (2:15pm, ITV1).
Warren Gatland’s side were beaten 43-0 in Paris on Friday, a record defeat for Wales in France, surpassing the 1991 36-3 loss.
It was also Wales’ 13th successive Test match defeat, a run which dates back to October 2023, when they beat Georgia 43–19.
Italy opened their Six Nations campaign with a trip to Scotland on Saturday, where they were beaten 31-19 to leave them joint bottom with Wales without a point so far.
After picking up the wooden spoon last year and losing all five matches, Wales will be desperate to end their losing run and, on paper at least, this is the best chance they will get for a while.
It’s hard to see how Wales are going to stop the rot if nothing is going to change yet it’s also hard to understand how different this spell is under Gatland.
In his first spell from 2007 to 2019, he won four Six Nations titles, including three Grand Slams, and reached the semi-finals of the 2011 and 2019 World Cups before leaving to coach the British & Irish Lions.
He returned to Wales in 2022, but it has been anything but a happy return. Last year they collected the Six Nations Wooden Spoon for the first time in 21 years, which prompted him to offer his resignation.
That was rejected by the WRU, but things haven’t got any better, losing every game since including a first-ever defeat by Fiji in November.
But for the first time since the 2023 World Cup, Gatland can call upon one of his trusted on-field generals in Taulupe Faletau, who comes into the side, along with centre Eddie James.
The bad news for Wales is full-back Liam Williams is struggling with a knee injury and may miss the game against an Italy side showing one change from the loss to Scoland with Niccolo Cannone replacing Dino Lamb.
I think we can expect Wales to fair better than they did last weekend but rugby betting sites are all favouring a home win, with the Italians at 4/9 while you can get 21/10 on a Wales win and 25/1 on a draw.
You can get 40/1 on Italy winning to nil but we prefer 11/4 on Italy to win by 11-20 points.
Italy vs Wales prediction 1: Italy to win by 11 – 20 points inclusive – 11/4 BoyleSports
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