Italy v Wales

Venue: Stadio Flaminio Date: Saturday, 26 February 2011 Kick-off: 1430 GMT

The Wales camp have been quick to exercise extreme caution ahead of their match against Italy, hardly surprising given that six of their starting line-up for Saturday's game were part of a humiliating defeat to Italy four years ago.

Coach Warren Gatland, who equals Alan Davies' record of 35 matches in charge of Wales, has repeatedly warned his side of the banana skin that a match in Rome poses to his charges.

They meet an Italian squad still reeling after their humiliation at the hands of England, which was labelled by Nick Mallett as one of the "worst days" of his tenure as coach of the Azzurri.

A ninth wooden spoon in 12 seasons of Six Nations rugby will edge closer if they repeat the defensive errors they made against England and allow Wales the space to run the ball at will.

Fly-half Stephen Jones certainly believes the classic Welsh style of "high risk, high reward" running rugby is the way to beat the Italians.

Yet while this may guarantee an entertaining afternoon's rugby in Rome, there is a feeling that the Welsh shouldn't get too carried away, given that their victory over a poor Scotland side was only their first in their last eight Tests.

The Welsh have admitted this week that the victory at Murrayfield will be rendered pointless unless they push on and build a consistent head of steam ahead of the World Cup.

Jones is back in the side for his 98th cap as an injury crisis at centre means James Hook is shunted from his favoured fly-half spot to occupy his third different position of this Six Nations so far.

It must be a source of frustration to the mercurial Ospreys back that despite reaching the milestone of 50 caps, his versatility has stopped him settling in one position. This will be his 18th start at centre compared with only 14 in the coveted number 10 shirt he so craves.

Italy's defence was breached after two minutes and nine seconds of their match with England, setting the tone for what was a very poor day at the office.

Mallett was aghast at his side's display, coming just a week after they agonisingly lost to Ireland. He was fuming at his side's defending, and a misfiring line-out that incredibly won only six of their 14 throws, a simply unacceptable statistic in international rugby.

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