Wales were beaten 19-15 by the Azzurre at Cardiff Arms Park despite tries for two Jones’ in outside centre Hannah and hooker Kelsey. Fly-half Robyn Wilkins kicked a conversion and a penalty, but it was not quite enough for victory despite what was on the whole a promising performance.
“There were a lot of encouraging signs. Straight after the game there was obviously disappointment, but when we look back in detail there will be a lot of positives to come out of the game,” Wyatt said.
“We started really well with some good attacking intent. To be fair to the Italians they came back at us and put us under a lot of pressure. We’ve got to give credit to our girls – their defensive effort throughout the game was outstanding.
“Moving forward that is a big positive for us. We built throughout the autumn and we are looking to take that forward now. There will be a lot of lessons from this and it’s important now that we learn them and take that into the Ireland game which is going to be equally as tough.
“We just need to be more accurate with the ball. There were difficult conditions with the wind and I think to be honest Italy managed that better than us. We need to look at how to transition out of our half and into the opposition’s.”
Italy came back to edge the encounter and scored three tries in the process through Melissa Bettoni, Sofia Stefan and Maria Magatti.
“We played some excellent rugby at times and there were glimpses of our attack. We just need to produce it more frequently,” added Wyatt as he targeted improvement for the Ireland clash.
“A big lesson for us is giving possession up too easily rather than building phases. Italy got into the right areas and spent a lot of time there – you can’t spend 70 per cent of the game in the wrong areas and expect to come out on top.”
Wales’ next game is away to Ireland at Donnybrook on Sunday.
“There is a great buzz around the game in Wales at the moment and we’ve got a lot of new players in the squad,” Wyatt said. “We showed good performances individually and collectively at times against Italy and there is a lot to build on. We need to keep progressing.”
Captain Siwan Lillicrap echoed those sentiments, “There’s nothing that can’t be fixed. We’ll learn more from that performance and the match situation than all the training you can do. Credit to Italy they’re a great side but I’m also proud of our players. We played for each other throughout the match and you can’t ask for more. We’re on a journey, we’ve come a long way already. We know we’re capable of more and so we’re excited to take to the training field this week and put things right against Ireland on Sunday.
“There’s more to come from this side and we hope the Welsh public stick behind us on our journey. There was a fantastic atmosphere and crowd behind us on Sunday. It was a quality match and we hope people enjoyed the day and will come back for our other two home games against France and Scotland. Sisters in Arms is our slogan and it really does feel like we’re a family on the pitch and off it.”
