Wales still hoping

After beating Italy on their own ground Wales is retaining hope for the title, even if after this narrow 15-20 escape they'll have to utterly defeat Ireland in the Millenium Stadium (yes, I wish I was one of the lucky possessors of a ticket!).

The defeat against France seems to have hit the Welsh more than it seemed ad first, up to the point that they were very close to losing the match to the best Italy seen so far. Shane Williams continued his scoring stripe, also keeping his average of one try per match against Italy; Shanklin's try finally gave Wales some of the breath they needed. Nevertheless, scoring two tries against zero wasn't enough to say that Wales really deserved to win, as what really costed Italy the match were their errors.

Sergio Parisse was voted man of the match, and I really appreciated his perfect positioning and energy, if not the careless way with which he handled a couple of balls, but that's ok in the end.

Will Italy surprise us all next week? they still have a long way to go, but France could still be shattered by their match against England...