Josh Navidi hailed his Wales teammates for carrying out their game plan to the letter after they comfortably beat Italy in Rome to stay on course for a Grand Slam.
Wales ran in seven tries to earn a 48-7 success at the Stadio Olimpico and a blockbuster display in the back row saw Navidi pick up the Guinness Six Nations Player of the Match award.
Report: Owens double helps Wales to big win over Italy
The blindside flanker made a game-high 19 tackles as well as gaining 33 metres from seven carries in an influential performance and praised his side for an accomplished afternoon’s work.
“We got the job done,” he said. “We knew it was going to be tough coming out here, which showed with Italy coming at us towards the end.
“They are a strong side and we knew it was going to be an open game, which we came here to play, and we really enjoyed it.
“We spoke all week about keeping it simple and we’ve delivered today exactly what we spoke about during the week.”
The visitors had their bonus point on the board inside half an hour in Rome, with Josh Adams and Taulupe Faletau’s early tries added to by a surprise brace from Ken Owens, who had not previously crossed in an international since 2016.
There was no let-up in the second half, which was just a minute old when George North outpaced the Italian backline to draw level with Shane Williams on 22 Championship tries.
Monty Ioane got Italy on the board but scores from Callum Sheedy and Louis Rees-Zammit put the seal on a convincing victory which puts Wales just one win away from a second Grand Slam in three years.
Jones: Wales have not produced perfect 80 minutes yet
Navidi is not getting ahead of himself, however, and insists the squad will keep their feet on the ground ahead of a tantalising Super Saturday clash against fellow Championship contenders France.
“At the end of the day, we are just taking it game by game and moving forward that way,” Navidi said.
“We’ll look forward to next week and go again in training on Monday.”
