By Morgan Cerrone

It was always going to be a difficult day for Italy facing Wales in the Stadio Olympico without Sergio Parisse, but it would be the scrum that proved to be the Achilles’ heel of the home side, allowing Wales to continue to build their confidence after winning in Paris. After a promising start to the Six Nations beating France, Italy will need to regroup after two defeats on the bounce while Wales will be playing with the knowledge that the hope of defending their title is still very much alive.

Early on in the game Italy looked to defend well, keeping a good number of players back to counter the Halfpenny threat as due to conditions the bombs were sure to rain down all afternoon and the kicking game to be as vital as ever. However it would be Italy’s own indiscipline that would gift Wales their first 3 points. Italy were never really in the game yet a poor Welsh scrum allowed Italy to level up when Jenkins was penalised for pulling down the scrum.

The three talking points from Week One of the Six Nations we've chosen to focus on are: England's selection dilemma, the possibility of glory for Ireland and Italy's big win over France.

It's that time of year again.

Since the Olympic and Paralympic Games concluded last summer, we've been somewhat starved of world-class sport. But the Six Nations is back and this year it's a particularly difficult tournament to predict.

Standard procedure in the build-up to sporting occasions like this is to select one obvious candidate to become champion and watch the action unfold. However, it's not that simple this time round.

By David van der Merwe

The 2012 Six Nations is a thing of the past and Wales have been crowned Grand Slam, Triple Crown and Six Nations Champions. The tournament however had some surprises as well as disappointments. Here is a brief recap on each team and their performance over the last 7 weeks.

By David van der Merwe

The week leading up to the second weekend of Six Nations Rugby was filled with some interesting talking points. First there was the Scottish try that was but wasn't given. In the eyes of the Scots a clear try however not given. In my eyes at most a 50/50 decision.

Discipline issues grazed the headlines and in the end all were happy with the 7 week ban handed out. But the big talking point was the pitch in France. Tents erected with blowers and heaters put on, because the field was frozen. And a wait till game day to decide if play would continue or not. But let us get to the action of what transpired over the last few days of Six Nations rugby.

Nick Heath from Rugby Media chats to Owen Farrell about his rapid rise to starting for Italy vs England at the Stadio Olimpico this weekend. To watch the interview, click play on the video below.

By David van der Merwe

The first round of the 2012 Six Nations has come and gone. Many match reports have been written and many more debates have been going over a pint of lager or over a "braaivleis" fire. (Barbecue for the non Afrikaans). Here is a quick round up of my predictions before the weekend and the actual out come.

France crossed the Italian try line four times to dismiss Jacques Brunel's Azzurri. Nine minutes from time, debutant and future star, Wesley Fofana, scored. This made the youngster the top Twitter trend worldwide for a brief period. Simon Ward was at the Stade De France and caught up with Luke McLean and Dimitri Yachvili.

By David van der Merwe

The first Italian XV to take the field was in 1911 between US Milanese and Voiron of France. In 1928 Federazione Italiana Rugby (FIR) was born from its predecessor "The Propaganda Committee". On 20 May 1929 Italy played their first international match against Spain. Spain walked off the field 9-0 victors. Since then Italian rugby has come a long way and has grown in stature. They are fondly known by their supporters as the Azzurri (the Blues).

The Azzurri has taken part in every World Cup tournament. They have never reached the quarter finals of the World Cup but have managed on 3 occasions to win 2 group matches. This was in 2003, 2007 and 2011. Notably all three times are after their admission to the 6 Nations in 2000.

At the RBS Six Nations 2012 launch earlier in the week, the guys from Talking Rugby spoke to all of the Six Nations coaches.

Warren Gatland remains the coach of Wales after a fantastic World Cup campaign whilst Philippe Saint-Andre replaces Marc Lievremont as coach of France. Former England Saxons coach, Stuart Lancaster, has replaced Martin Johnson as England boss after England's disappointing World Cup display on and off the field.

Declan Kidney remains the Irish coach and Andy Robinson keeps his job despite not taking Scotland into the World Cup quarter-finals in New Zealand. Jacques Brunel, the former assistant coach of France, will take over from Nick Mallett as coach of Italy. See what the coaches had to say in the audio interviews below.