ITALY’S win against tournament favourites France showed the much-lauded unpredictability of the Six Nations, if only we could expect the unexpected with Wales in attack.

Conservatism reigns when it comes to the national side; conservatism of selection, conservatism of game plan.

Much has been made of the high risk, high reward tactic employed by Shaun Edwards with his blitz defence.

That daring policy is at odds with how Wales play with ball in hand.

They have spluttered in attack for a long time. The template used by Warren Gatland since his Wasps days is known by all and sundry.

Ireland knew what was coming, dealt with it and romped into an unassailable lead.

Wales only scored some points when they were released from the shackles; it wasn’t so much mutiny as playing with desperation.

Contrast the way that they played in the last half-hour to the crucial spell just before half-time when it was big men running hard and straight.

Their style tested the Irish, stretched the defence, created chances and led to a pair of yellow cards.

There doesn’t need to be any nonsense about playing ‘the Welsh way’, just for pragmatism to be mixed with the odd bit of flair, for players not be scared to chance their arm.

Playing by numbers is boring, predictable and ineffective, yet the coaches seem loath to change the methods introduced by Gatland.

“Wales have consistently picked very aggressive, front-foot carrying centres in Jamie Roberts and Jon Davies, while Scott Williams has played his part in there when he has slotted in,” said backs coach Mark Jones this week.

“It’s been very successful on the whole. It comes back to risk versus reward. Do you want to go away from what you’ve been doing and play a different style?

“If you do then James can certainly give you that option. But my opinion is that the midfield has been very successful for the last two or three seasons and you try not to tinker too much with what isn’t broken.”

Not broken? I would suggest that failure to earn a proper Test win since securing the Grand Slam in 2012 means things have not exactly been running smoothly.

The coaching staff need to be brave in selection, bringing in Ryan Jones, Richard Hibbard, Paul James, Justin Tipuric, James Hook, Scott Williams and Lee Byrne.

Bold selection would encourage the players to be bold in attack on the pitch – you only have to look at how Stuart Lancaster has empowered his young England players to see that the tone is set by the coaches.

Sticking with the tried and tested just isn’t working anymore. The sight of Wales below Italy in the IRB world rankings should hammer that point home.

On Monday Edwards stressed that there would be plenty of pre-selection nerves ahead of this lunchtime’s team announcement.

“Everyone will be nervous, and that is the way it should be in international rugby,” he said.

“Even the experienced players should know they are two bad games away from being in jeopardy.

“It should be like that with the All Blacks, and any international team around the world.”

After eight Test defeats on the spin that tipping point should already have been reached.