Wales vs Italy LIVE: Latest Six Nations score and updates from Cardiff

Wales have not won since the opening game of the championship, when they thumped Scotland 34-7 at the Principality Stadium.

Warren Gatland’s side have since been beaten away by England and Ireland, prompting the former Lions boss to make 10 changes to his side for this fixture.

Italy meanwhile have shown glimpses of attacking promise but their defensive frailty has remained: Conor O’Shea’s side have shipped 136 points in just three matches.

So can they turn things around? Express Sport brings you all the Six Nations action from Cardiff as it happens.

Wales 24 – Italy 7 LIVE

YELLOW CARD! (Gareth Davies 49′)

Temporarily, Wales are down to 13. It will only be 90 seconds but Italy MUST capitalise on this. Otherwise they are in dire straits.

Williams isn’t even going to come back on – it will be Leigh Halfpenny instead.

TRY WALES! (Hill 43′; conversion Anscombe)

With a man down. That was so so easy too. Wales scrum on the five-metre line and while North can’t crash through on the first phase, Hill can. This Italian defence is so porous on the try-line.

40 MINUTES

Back come the Welsh, and the Italians. No-one has made any changes yet – and there are only 14 men in red of course with Liam Williams in the sin bin. Anscombe gets us back underway.

***HALF-TIME***

YELLOW CARD! (Liam Williams 40+3′)

Liam Williams gets an early run off the pitch right on the stroke of half-time. A kick went across and was tidied up by Italy, but Williams flew in and the referee and TMO have decided it was a high hit and he will miss the first quarter of the second half.

17-7 Wales lead at the break.

PENALTY WALES (Anscombe 37′)

Simple kick for Wales’ fly-half and the home side have a two-score lead.

30 MINUTES

Having kicked for the corner a couple of times, Italy take the points on offer on the 10-metre line this time… but Allan hooks it just, just wide. Deserved more for a good period of play but they get the ball back in a similar position, before Wales steal it and clear.

25 MINUTES

Frantic. Loose ball in the Welsh 22, Williams hacks clear, then loses the foot race to Minozzi. Italy recognise the overlap – but Faletau shuts that down with a THUMPING hit on Allan. Credit to the former Scot, who after being checked over, is back up and smiling at the Wales captain.

Italy are picking up penalties though and it’s giving them excellent field position… only to give away one of their own on the five-metre line. How frustrating.

20 MINUTES

Wales give away a soft penalty in midfield, James Davies penalised for a late hit, and Allan punts them right down into the corner. Great attacking platform for Italy but the maul goes down… and Italy get the put-in on the five-metre line.

NO TRY!

Fabulous work from Steff Evans. Wales restart the game quickly and it gets spun wide to the winger, who dinks a kick over the Italian line with no-one at home and Gareth Davies is the chief beneficiary. However, he is in front of the kicker and it is wiped off for offside.

15 MINUTES

After it looked like we might be about to watch a massacre, Italy have settled well. However, some inaccurate kicking allows Wales a couple of chances to run from the back three – and with North and Williams around, that’s not wise.

TRY ITALY! (Minozzi 11′; conversion Allan)

What a finish from the Italian full-back! Scrum-half Violi fakes a grubber in the corner which makes Liam Williams just hesitate, and that gives Minozzi just enough space to jink past him and score in the corner. Superb hit back from the Italians.

TRY WALES! (North 6′: conversion Anscombe)

Italy steal the ball in the Welsh half, get frantic and try to get it wide and Owen Watkin picks it off, making it to the 22 before offloading to George North, who scores his 31st international try. Easy game. Italy in tatters.

TRY WALES! (Parkes 4′; conversion Anscombe)

Oh dear. Not the start Italy had planned. Wales win a penalty in the middle of the pitch and Gareth Anscombe goes for touch to set up an attacking opportunity.

And they barely have to go through the phases before Hadleigh Parkes strolls in for the first score.

****KICK-OFF****

Tommaso Allan kicks us off and Wales clear to give Italy possession around the halfway line. We’ll see whether they can carry more of an attacking threat this time around.

2.55pm: Taulupe Faletau leads his side out at a packed Principality Stadium to an electric atmosphere. The anthems will shortly follow then we will be getting underway. What a pair of anthems too.

2.45pm: You have noticed a slight change to that team-sheet by the way. Samson Lee has called in sick so Rhodri Jones comes onto the bench in his place.

Italy meanwhile are as expected. Personally I’m a big fan of their back three and the running rugby they can play – but it is in defence that they will have to show a little more resolve.

Starting XV: Matteo Minozzi, Tommaso Benvenuti, Giulio Bisegni, Tommaso Castello, Mattia Bellini; Tommaso Allan, Marcello Violi; Andrea Lovotti, Leonardo Ghiraldini, Simone Ferrari, Alessandro Zanni, Dean Budd, Sebastian Negri, Maxime Mbanda, Sergio Parisse.

Replacements: Oliviero Fabiani, Nicola Quaglio, Tizano Pasquali, Federico Ruzza, Giovanni Licata, Guglielmo Palazzani, Carlo Canna, Jayden Hayward.

2.30pm: Surely Wales can’t mess this up? They are favoured by 28 points with the bookmakers, which is a staggering handicap. It means Italy are 18/1 underdogs in a two-horse race. Long story short, Wales are HUGE favourites.

And Warren Gatland has been accused of complacency with his 10 changes and new-look side – although Italy boss Conor O’Shea has shrugged off the idea that Wales might not be taking them seriously.

Here is the Welsh line-up by the way, with George North back in and Gareth Anscombe running the show at stand-off.

Starting XV: Liam Williams, Steff Evans, Owen Watkin, Hadleigh Parkes, George North; Gareth Anscombe, Gareth Davies; Nicky Smith, Elliot Dee, Tomas Francis, Bradley Davies, Cory Hill, Justin Tipuric, James Davies, Taulupe Faletau.

Replacements: Ken Owens, Rob Evans, Rhodri Jones, Seb Davies, Ellis Jenkins, Aled Davies, Rhys Patchell, Leigh Halfpenny.