Dominant second half performance seal 7-33 win for Wales over Italy

Italy 7 - 33 Wales, Stadio Olimpico
Scorecard

Three tries in the second half helped Wales turned the tide as they kicked-off their Six Nations campaign with a 7-33 win over Italy at Sadio Olimpico on Sunday.

The game was evenly poised at the end of the first half with Italy leading 7-3 but they went on to concede 30 points in the second half after tries from Jonathan Davies, Liam Williams and George North while fullback Leigh Halfpenny scored 18 points.

Wales handed a Six Nations debut for Ross Moriarty and Rhys Webb returned from injury while Italy had 13 players from Zebre and Treviso.

Halfpenny missed an early penalty in the game and Wales were put in a spot of bother after North sustained a leg injury while skipper Alun Wyn Jones had to leave the field with blood injury in the fourth minute. However, Jones returned back to action in the 11th minute.

Italy skipper Sergio Parisse looked in good nick and almost went past the line and it need three Wales players to prevent him from scoring but few minutes later scrum-half Edoardo Gori crossed over to score the first points in the game while fly-half Carlo Canna added the conversion to take the lead to seven points.

A 35th minute penalty from Halfpenny reduced the deficit to four points for Wales at half-time.

There were more injury concerns for Wales as Dan Biggar did not appear in the second half and was replaced by Sam Davies.

Halfpenny brought Wales into lead for the first time with his hat-trick of penalties which came in a span of 10 minutes.

Italy's problem compounded when prop Andrea Lovotti was sin-binned in the 59th minute and Wales capitalised on it after Davies, Williams and North strolled past the post in the final quarter while Halfpenny converted all the three tries to secure a 26-point win for the visitors.