Italy believe Warren Gatland will take the brakes off Wales when they come to Cardiff in the fourth round of the Six Nations on Sunday.
Azzurri forward coach Giampiero De Carli has suggested Wales will play with greater freedom now that two defeats have effectively ended their hopes of lifting the title.
Both of those losses – to England and Ireland – were characterised by Gatland’s side ending the game strongly, having appeared more cautious in the earlier stages.
But De Carli – whose teams are looking for their first victory after defeats to England, France and Ireland – says: “Now that Wales do not have the pressure of “having to” win the tournament, they are even more dangerous.
“Furthermore, the desire for redemption after the defeat against Ireland will be even greater.
“Wales is a team that has a huge talent. It is absolutely misleading to talk about injuries in their team. They have a very wide depth that allows Warren Gatland to be able to field players of great value.
“From our point of view, we will have to be very careful and increasingly reduce our mistakes. We are aware of the technical level of Wales and, even more so, we will have to be very careful and focused on the pitch.”
The suggestion that Wales have been too conservative in the early stages of those last two games has also been floated by Wales outside-half Gareth Anscombe.
The Cardiff Blues No.10, who is battling for a starting place with Dan Biggar and Rhys Patchell, wants Wales to go for broke earlier in matches.
Anscombe said: “Maybe at times as a team our attitude has to be more positive from the get go. We’ve talked about that as a group. We need to back our skill set from the start. We have to come out of the gates firing.
“I’ve certainly noticed a massive improvement in the skill level since I’ve been involved in the squad and it’s positive to be a part of a team that’s capable of doing some special things.
“Once we get our decision-making a little more accurate I certainly think we will be a difficult side to contain.
“We’ve created a few good opportunities in the last few games, it’s just a case of us finishing them off or maybe creating them a little earlier.
“You can’t go away to the big sides like England and Ireland and give yourself too much to do. In Dublin we had a bad spell either side of half time which we didn’t react to.
“After that, we showed a lot of character to come back and we had a real chance at the end. We have to stay positive and not go back to old habits.”
