WARREN Gatland has stressed that he isn’t pushing Mike Phillips towards the exit door by leaving him out of his squad for the Six Nations finale against Italy, insisting it’s a case of horses for courses as Wales attempt to rack up the points.

The Wales boss has opted for Scarlets speedster Gareth Davies as the back-up for Rhys Webb at the Stadio Olimpico and he will be joined on the bench by hooker Ken Owen, centre Scott Williams and flanker Justin Tipuric.

The visitors will need to score freely in Rome to heap the pressure on Ireland and current leaders England ahead of their clashes with Scotland at Murrayfield and France at Twickenham respectively.

So Gatland, whose side have a points difference of 12 compared to Ireland's 33 and England's 37, knows that his replacements need to stress and strain the Azzurri until the final whistle rather than safely negotiating the closing stages.

“If we were playing for a Grand Slam and having to win by one point, then some of the team or the bench might have been a bit different,” said the head coach.

"We have picked players that we think can come on and have an impact and give us some go-forward and real footballing skills. This whole championship has been about horses for courses, and that's what we have done this week.

"One of the things about Gareth (Davies) is if you look at his try-scoring record. He's incredibly quick and he scores some wonderful tries out of nothing for the Scarlets.

"If we need him to come and run the ball and take the Italians on, that's part of the decision behind him being given that opportunity.

"The important thing for us on Saturday is not to get carried away about the scoreboard. Let's win the game first, because there are two other games afterwards.

"The worst thing for us would be to go out and try to score 40 or 50 points against Italy, end up playing too much rugby early on and lose the game and then find that Scotland and France win, and we have potentially cost ourselves a championship.

"We have got to be smart about the way we approach the game."

Racing Metro scrum-half Phillips has been a magnificent servant to Welsh rugby, overtaking Dwayne Peel to become his country’s most-capped scrum-half with a tally of 93.

“If he makes the World Cup squad he is probably a player who is not going to be around for 2019,” Gatland said about the 32-year-old

“He has given us fantastic service and Rhys Webb is still developing as a nine with a number of things in his game he needs to work on.

“Mike has not been left out because of form, we just feel it is an opportunity for Gareth to come in and make an improvement.

“He has got to fight for his position like everyone else and there is a lot of competition in the squad.

“Some players are very disappointed and one of the positions we have a massive debate about for a long time was the centre position and Scott Williams is very unlucky not to be starting.”

WALES TEAM TO FACE ITALY: Leigh Halfpenny (Toulon); George North (Northampton Saints), Jonathan Davies (ASM Clermont Auvergne), Jamie Roberts (Racing Metro), Liam Williams (Scarlets), Dan Biggar (Ospreys), Rhys Webb (Ospreys); Rob Evans (Scarlets), Scott Baldwin (Ospreys), Aaron Jarvis (Ospreys), Luke Charteris (Racing Metro), Alun Wyn Jones (Ospreys), Dan Lydiate (Ospreys), Sam Warburton (Cardiff Blues, captain), Taulupe Faletau (Newport Gwent Dragons).

Replacements: Ken Owens (Scarlets), Rhys Gill (Saracens), Scott Andrews (Cardiff Blues), Jake Ball (Scarlets), Justin Tipuric (Ospreys), Gareth Davies (Scarlets), Rhys Priestland (Scarlets), Scott Williams (Scarlets).