CHRIS Wyatt is taking it on the chin as he waits for his chance to start a game in the World Cup.

Wyatt, the Llanelli lock born in Newport and still living there, was a last minute replacement when Dragons counterpart Michael Owen withdrew because of a back injury.

Wyatt (pictured above) missed out on the Canada game and only went on as a second half replacement against Tonga.

He will know tomorrow if he has made the starting line-up for the all-important game against Italy on Saturday.

But Wyatt is remaining optimistic and insists he will go along with whatever coach Steve Hansen decides.

The feeling is Hansen will choose Brent Cockbain and Gareth Llewellyn, which would be tough on Wyatt whose aggressive instincts and line-out ability ought to earn him a place.

'Whatever team gets the opportunity I'll be fully behind them. Whether I get the chance is beyond my control,' said Wyatt.

'You want to play in every game, but that's not the way things happen. I don't pick the side, that's the way it is and I've just got to get on with it.'

Wyatt admits all attention is now focused fully on Saturday's game against Italy which will put Wales into the quarter-finals if they win.

'If we don't get a result we'll have to take points off New Zealand, so ideally we want to secure it against Italy,' he said.

'All we can do is secure the victory against Italy and then address the rest. The Italians and ourselves are looking to win, the style wouldn't matter much to us, that's how much it means.'

Wyatt is not bothered by the lacklustre performance despite the victory over Tonga, saying it reminds him of the Samoa game at the last World Cup, with one major difference.

'We won this time, and it was good we were able to come through,' he said.

'Now we've got to get to the quarter-finals, that's the number one aim and it doesn't matter how we get there.

'It was disappointing we couldn't put our plans fully into play against Tonga, but it was the first time it had rained since we have been here,and we had to be more sure in our handling.'

He's got a healthy respect for the Italians, the Wales squad watching their game against Canada yesterday on television.

'Italy would be disappointed with the scoreline but not the result,' he said. 'Their scrum and their set pieces are solid and they show a real threat in a lot of areas. They've got good ball carriers in centre Cristian Stoica and Andrea de Rossi and Sergio Parisse in the back row, they hold the key in big areas which we have got to guard against.

'The back row is a good unit and they link well. They would have liked to put the Canada game to bed earlier.'

And Wyatt warned 'We have got a lot of work to do and we need a really big improvement.'