Two tries put Gibbs in Lions frame

O'Driscoll, John Leslie and Mark Taylor - in contention for the tour.

Gibbs may have been stoked up during the warmup when a Welsh fan shouted: 'Come on Scott, it's your last game for Wales.'

Had that been true, it would have been a great finale. But, on this showing, Gibbs looks more than capable of adding to his 53 caps as well as earning a place on the tour.

Henry said: 'Scott will be delighted with the way he played. It shows the character of the guy. He was under pressure to perform well here and he did.'

Wales had to overcome the handicap of losing Rob Howley a couple of hours before kick- off when the scrum half, who should have won his 50th cap, cried off with a back injury.

His absence opened the way for Bath's Gareth Cooper to make a memorable debut, scoring a try in the seventh minute after Diego Dominguez had kicked Italy into the lead in the first minute when Wales were penalised for obstruction. Cooper went over after launching a rapid interchange of four passes following a line-out. Wales' second try came when Mauro Bergamasco tripped over one of Colin Charvis's feet, Scott Quinnell plunged through the gap and popped the ball to Gibbs, who barged his way over.

Gibbs' second try was even simpler. It came when he was fed by Neil Jenkins in the 50 th minute, after Dominguez had rocked Wales with a drop goal.

All the while, Neil Jenkins was knocking over his own kicks. Three conversions and four penalties left Italy playing catch-up and took him 10 points past his previous championship best haul of 64, set two years ago.

The Italian crowd was given something to shout about when Carlo Checchinato lunged through late in the game for a deserved try, but it was too little, too late.

Italy full back Cristian Stoica and Wales' replacement lock Craig Quinnell were sin-binned in separate incidents as the match deteriorated into a messy affair,

New Zealand referee Paul Honiss used his whistle far too frequently and Henry admitted his side were frustrated by the stop- start nature of the match.

Wales skipper David Young said: 'I was constantly querying the referee's decisions but he explained what he was doing so we just had to get on with it.'