Wales face ‘make or break’ Six Nations clash with Italy as first game fails to go to plan

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Wales face a make-or-break game against Italy in the 2025 Six Nations, with their hopes of a successful campaign hanging in the balance.  After a disappointing start to the tournament, this match is crucial for Warren Gatland’s side to regain momentum and avoid further setbacks. Italy, no longer seen as underdogs, will provide a stern test, and Wales will need to deliver a strong, cohesive performance to keep their championship aspirations alive.

Transcript

00:00Charles, again, as we've mentioned in the past, Wales rugby or Welsh rugby has not been

00:07in a great place of late for the past year, you know, all those losses and with the start

00:12of the Six Nations campaign in 2025, at least from a Welsh perspective, you would have hoped

00:17that things might be a little bit more respectable, but not to be at all. A real hammering against

00:23France in their opening game on Friday evening just showed where Welsh rugby is at at this

00:28moment in time and it's not a good place under Warren Gatland. Of course, Warren Gatland

00:32is a coach who's led the Welsh rugby side to many a great victory, many a great moment,

00:36but at the moment, utterly dreadful. So where do they go from here? Because of course, the

00:42next game is Italy and essentially that's, at least by the looks of it, a wooden spoon

00:48playoff judging by the progress of the other teams. So Wales really need to win that game

00:53to not finish bottom because you think, well, if Italy win, then they've got all the momentum

00:57for the rest of the competition. They might not win many more games, Italy, but surely

01:01if they beat Wales, you can't see Wales winning any more either. So very much an important

01:06game for Wales, this one, just to not finish bottom.

01:08Yeah, of course, obviously, you know, Italy lost as well in their opening round to Scotland,

01:14but they showed plenty of promise and it'll be no easy task for Warren Gatland's side.

01:19I feel like it's to that point now where it's make or break, obviously winless throughout

01:232024. As we've mentioned prior, he's under serious threat if Wales lose to Italy. So

01:30the stakes for this match are extremely high. You know, they didn't really start the way

01:35they wanted to, obviously against tournament favourite France and Dupont, you know, being

01:39Dupont has had an unbelievable few years and he's been one of the best sort of modern rugby

01:45stars. He just sort of dominated and showed how good he was. I mean, it's been dubbed

01:50as the biggest match in 20 years for Wales by Dan Biggar and, you know, that's where

01:57they are, obviously the clash in Rome. It sort of points towards, as you say, the wooden

02:00spoon race and trying to avoid that. And they obviously got that last time out and they

02:05really, really don't want to be in a position where they have to pick that up again. It's

02:10such an embarrassment for a side who have been really miles away from where they need

02:15to be. Wales are clearly a top 10 nation that have been the lowest rank they've ever

02:20been in their history as a rugby nation. And they need major improvement. There's no doubt

02:26about that. They've got, obviously, fitness concerns, injury concerns for a few of their

02:31players. But this means, you know, some of their young players need to start stepping

02:34up and come into the side. Obviously, Talupe Faletau is still recovering and he clearly

02:40showed that in the game against France. And Gatland just needs the key players, you know,

02:45the likes of Joe Roberts and Tom Rogers to step up. And you're looking at what Warren

02:49Gatland's future is really on a knife edge and could certainly earn, you know, the sack

02:56sooner rather than later if things don't go to plan.

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