By Paul Jones
Dan Biggar and Wales’ bid for victory in Italy on Saturday has been fuelled by his wife’s baked goods, but the fly-half insists Wayne Pivac’s side can still raise their game.
Wales face the Azzurri in Rome with a Six Nations Triple Crown already in the bag.
Ever the competitor, Biggar wants his team to go to the next level at the Stadio Olimpico.
“My wife Alex was a primary school teacher before we had our little one,” said Biggar.
“She gave that up to be a full-time mum, but in the meantime, she’s started doing some baking with things like cookies. Somehow they’ve managed to get into the team room for our days off!
“The boys are loving them and at the moment we’re going alright off them so hopefully we don’t slip up on Saturday.
“It’s the highlight of the week where we sit down in the conservatory of the hotel and have a coffee and a cake. We sit there for two or three hours and put the world to rights!”
Biggar added: “Wayne said earlier this week we’re looking for an 80-minute performance which would be really nice. It would go along with some great results so far.
“It’s great we’ve won a Triple Crown and beat a strong England team.
“We’ve probably had a little bit of luck in the first three games, but it’s one of those things where if you’re on the right side of the luck, you probably don’t care.
“We’re pleased to be where we are with a game against Italy to come.
“The focus this week has really been on having the same mindset we had for England at home. That tends to be our biggest game and we can’t be anywhere below that on Saturday.
“Italy are an attacking team with a threat and if we think we’re going out to Italy to rock up in the sunshine and get an easy job done then we’ll be in for a wake-up call.
“The mindset is absolutely the same as if we were playing England again.”
Behind the scenes of Farrells Oprah interview after the infamous Dan Biggar cross-kick try pic.twitter.com/brMwzfyFRi
— Clare Molloy (@ClareeMolloy) March 9, 2021
Biggar starts his fourth straight game of the 2021 Championship. Alongside him at scrum-half is Gareth Davies who is one of two changes to the Wales side from the win over England.
Lock Cory Hill is the other man to come into the starting XV.
Biggar has formed an effective fly-half combination with Callum Sheedy in the tournament so far.
The experienced Northampton playmaker is the man to control things from the off. In the three games so far, Bristol’s Sheedy has appeared off the bench to make an impressive impact.
“Callum has been very good. This year does have similarities with 2019,” said Biggar. “If we’re brutally honest we didn’t play that well in the opening two games of this campaign.
“We played well in the second half against Ireland, but in Scotland we had two moments of magic from Louis Rees-Zammit and the second one made the difference.
“It was the same a couple of years ago when we didn’t play well in the opening two games, but still got the results. In both years we’ve played well against England in the middle game and that set us up to do the job in 2019.
“From Sheeds’ point of view he’s been excellent coming on and doing a job when he’s needed. The three goals he kicked against England were big kicks. He held his nerve and delivered really well.
“We’re in a good position as a squad with the young guys who are fresh, energised and chomping at the bit. Then you’ve got an old stager like myself who is hanging on and trying to guide the team around from the start! For Sheeds in particular he’s been excellent when he’s come on.
“He’s an excellent, grounded, level-headed kid.”
Italy have Pembrokeshire-born scrum-half Stephen Varney back in their starting line-up alongside fly-half Paolo Garbisi who will go head-to-head with Biggar.
“We are ready to continue our journey facing a team that aims to win the tournament,” said Italy head coach Franco Smith.
“We are meeting our goal – to improve our performances and to become more and more competitive match after match. Every week we work hard together to win.”
Italy: 15-Jacopo Trulla, 14-Mattia Bellini, 13-Juan Ignacio Brex, 12-Carlo Canna, 11-Montanna Ioane, 10-Paolo Garbisi, 9-Stephen Varney; 1-Danilo Fischetti, 2-Luca Bigi (captain), 3-Giosue Zilocchi, 4-Niccolo Cannone, 5-David Sisi, 6-Sebastian Negri, 7-Johan Meyer, 8-Michele Lamaro
Replacements: 16-Oliviero Fabiani, 17-Andrea Lovotti, 18-Marco Riccioni, 19-Marco Lazzaroni, 20-Maxime Mbanda, 21-Marcello Violi, 22-Federico Mori, 23-Edoardo Padovani
Wales: 15-Liam Williams, 14-Louis Rees-Zammit, 13-George North, 12-Jonathan Davies. 11-Josh Adams, 10-Dan Biggar, 9-Gareth Davies; 1-Wyn Jones, 2-Ken Owens, 3-Tomas Francis, 4-Cory Hill, 5-Alun Wyn Jones (captain), 6-Josh Navidi, 7-Justin Tipuric, 8-Taulupe Faletau
Replacements: 16-Elliot Dee, 17-Rhys Carre, 18-Leon Brown, 19-Jake Ball, 20-Aaron Wainwright, 21-Lloyd Williams, 22-Callum Sheedy, 23-Uilisi Halaholo
Match facts
Wales have won 26 of the 29 all-time meetings, losing two and drawing one.
The Welsh have won the last 15 meetings.
A 16th consecutive victory would represent Wales’ longest winning run against a particular opponent, overtaking a run of 15 straight victories versus France from 1908-1927.
The Italians’ last Six Nations win came away to Scotland in 2015.
They have lost 19 successive home matches in the Six Nations since beating Ireland 22-15 in 2013.
Franco Smith’s side have conceded 41 penalties in this year’s Six Nations, a joint high with England, including nine at the scrum – which is at least four more than any other side.
The Azzurri have made 15 line breaks at this year’s Championship – only Wales, with 13, have fewer.
Wales have won five of their last six matches, losing the other.
However, they have lost six of their last seven away games, ending a six-match losing streak when they beat Scotland 25-24 last month.
The Welsh are the only side yet to receive a yellow or red card in this year’s Championship, and have gone 14 Six Nations matches without such a punishment.
They last had players sin binned in the Six Nations against Italy in 2018, when Liam Williams and Gareth Davies were both yellow carded.
Match officials
Referee: Wayne Barnes (England)
Touch judges: Pascal Gauzere (France) & Christophe Ridley (England)
TMO: Tom Foley (England)