Wales finish Six Nations with a win after Tuipulotu strikes at the death

A record crowd for a women’s international at the Principality Stadium saw Wales snatch a last-gasp victory over Italy in the Six Nations.

Wales had lost their previous four matches in the competition and were staring at another defeat before Sisilia Tuipulotu’s try two minutes from time, converted by Lleucu George, earned the hosts a 22-20 victory.

Wales took the lead in the 16th minute through a try from hooker Carys Phillips but a minute later the home side lost the ball and Vittoria Ostuni Minuzzi ran in, with Beatrice Rigoni’s conversion putting Italy ahead.

A penalty from Rigoni made it 10-5 at half-time but Wales were back in front within four minutes of the restart, prop Gwenllian Pyrs diving over and Keira Bevan converting.

A Bevan penalty extended the lead to five points but Italy hit back with two tries from Francesca Granzotto and Emma Stevanin before Tuipulotu’s last intervention.

The result was not enough for Wales to avoid the wooden spoon but the crowd of 10,592 went home happy after a win to end a testing campaign.

Head coach Ioan Cunningham said: “The pressure is a privilege. We are lucky to do what we do. It is hard at times but moments like that are so special. I’m so pleased for the players because they put in so much hard work.

“A lot of effort and a lot of disappointment has gone through this group over the last six or seven weeks. One thing is we have been tight as a group and it all came out at the end.

“This Welsh team will not give up. It pulled it out and we should celebrate a victory, which we had not had for a long time.

“It is massive and means so much to us all. So much work, energy and effort had gone into this campaign and things hadn’t gone our way.

“I’m just so proud of the effort. It’s been a tough campaign. It’s not where we want to be but to get the win was huge to give us a springboard back to where we want to get to.”

Wales finished third last year but this time propped up the table.

“We are not a bad team, it’s just things haven’t happened. We are trying to change the way we are playing. We will get there,” said Cunningham.

“We can build on that, whatever is next for us we will focus on that, try and get some more wins and keep building on exposing some more talent and on the experience we have.

“We will look at it critically, at ourselves and where we can get better but I think, what’s important at this time, is to enjoy this because we have gone through a tough period. This is the springboard we need to go in the right direction.”

- England claimed their sixth successive Guinness Women’s Six Nations title and completed a hat-trick of Grand Slams after toppling France 42-21 in Bordeaux.

The Red Roses led from the moment prop Maud Muir charged over in the fourth minute and they went on to score six tries, with number eight Alex Matthews crossing twice in front of a 28,000 full house.

France touched down three times but they suffered the setback of losing Assia Khalfaoui to a yellow card for a dangerous clear-out of Morwenna Talling, with the offence upgraded to red on review.

England have now won the Grand Slam for the last three years and their winning run in the tournament stands at 29 games, with their last defeat coming against France in 2018.