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Wales take first win in the 2024 Women's Six Nations on final day

CARDIFF, WALES - APRIL 27: Carys Phillips of Wales poses for a photograph with Silvia Turani of Italy after the Guinness Women's Six Nations 2024 match between Wales and Italy at Principality Stadium on April 27, 2024 in Cardiff, Wales. (Photo by Ryan Hiscott/Federugby via Getty Images)

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.

Fixture
Womens Six Nations
Wales Women
22 - 20
Full-time
Italy Women
All Stats and Data

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.

Rugby World Cup 2025 is coming to England. Register now here to be the first to hear about tickets.

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fl 1 hour ago
Ex-Wallaby laughs off claims Bath are amongst the best in the world

I think their previous seasons aren’t especially relevant to how good they are now, but YOU do. I think its pretty obvious that I’m making the point that even applying your criteria, which involves looking at Leinster’s record over multiple seasons, they are a really good side - arguably the best in Europe/the world.


“In each of those seasons they did meet teams who were better than them, thats why they lost those matches.”

(1) I don’t really agree, as you can’t judge who is better than who purely on the basis of one match. I guess you’d say that Northampton are better than Leinster bc they beat them, but would you also say that Gloucester are better than Northampton, because they beat them twice and finished higher in the league? Who do you think is the better team, Leinster or Gloucester?

(2) fwiw I didn’t claim that Leinster were the best team in any one season (prior to this one). In 2022 and 2023 la Rochelle were better, but they were pretty poor in 2024 (definitely not top 5; probably not top 10), so I think over the period 2022-2024 Leinster were better overall. In 2024 Toulouse were better than Leinster, but they weren’t in 2023 or 2022, so I think over the period 2022-2024 Leinster were better overall. You’re welcome to disagree, but do you?


“I didn’t say I hated Leinster either so not sure why you felt the need to mention hate.”

I was using “hate” more as a synonym for “being negative about” rather than meaning the actual emotion of hatred. Sorry if that confused matters.

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