Warren Gatland was pleased with Wales' heavy points haul © Getty Images

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Matches: Wales 47 - 8 Italy

Players/Officials: Tom Shanklin

Wales defence coach Shaun Edwards cannot wait for his side's Triple Crown showdown in Dublin after watching them keep their RBS 6 Nations Grand Slam bid on track with a 47-8 victory against Italy today.

The home side stuttered to a 13-8 half-time lead at the Millennium Stadium but scored 34 unanswered points after the break to stay on course for a second clean sweep in four years. Today's result banished memories of a defeat and a draw against the Azzurri over the past two seasons and Edwards is now looking forward to the crucial clash in Ireland in two weeks' time.

''All roads lead to Dublin,'' he proclaimed. For head coach Warren Gatland, the manner and the size of today's victory will be important to Wales as they move into the business end of the championship.

He said: ''The biggest thing to today were the points we scored because the championship could come down to points difference and we put a message on with 10 minutes to go to try to score as many points as we could. Even if we lose to Ireland, it could come down to points difference in the final game against France. We are very mindful of that.

''I was always confident that we could win by 40 points, especially considering how sharp the players were in training yesterday. They are starting to understand the type of game we want to play.''

Wales led 6-0 through two Stephen Jones penalties but were shocked when Martin Castrogiovanni crossed for the game's opening try. Lee Byrne went over for the first of his two touchdowns to ensure the home side would go into the break ahead though Andrea Marcato's penalty kept the visitors in touch.

Wales were rampant after the restart, Tom Shanklin, man-of-the-match Byrne and Shane Williams (two) all touching down, while Jones finished with 18 points before being replaced by James Hook (four points).

Gatland believes he is in a good position as a coach with regards the quality of his half-backs. He said: ''Mike Phillips came on and made a real impact. I thought Stephen Jones had a pretty good game and having someone like James Hook to come on and keep the tempo on is good as well. There is a lot of debate about the half-backs in Wales but I think that debate is healthy.''

Skipper Ryan Jones said: ''We are building a belief in the squad and we believed we could beat Italy. We won because we worked bloody hard for 60 minutes. We have got the atmosphere in the squad and the mentality we can win. We have still got a way to go but we are building confidence.''

As defence coach, Edwards was more than satisfied with Wales' performance without the ball. He said: ''We only missed three tackles all game and the Italy try came from an interception at a line-out. The most pleasing thing for me was the defensive side of our game.'' Backs coach Rob Howley added: ''We scored five tries against Italy and not many sides do that.''

Coach Nick Mallett rued a disastrous second half which saw Italy slide to a record-equalling defeat against Wales in the Millennium Stadium. The Italians were only 13-8 down at the interval but had to watch as Wales racked up 34 unanswered points with four second half tries. It left Mallett reviewing what he called a disastrous second period which began with an interception try and then a yellow card which gave the unbeaten Welsh some serious momentum in the race for the RBS 6 Nations title.

''At half-time we could have been in touch with Wales or even in the lead,'' said Mallett. ''We contributed to our own downfall but they also played very well. They controlled the ball very well and have got good individual players. In the second half there was only one side on the field. Wales played well and we played badly.

''When you start off giving an interception try and then get a yellow card (Mirco Bergamasco) and when your kicking game wasn't as good as theirs there's only one team in it. We didn't play with the ball. We have to work hard and make sure we don't make the same mistakes again.''

Asked about the performance of fly-half Andrea Masi, Mallett said: ''I'm not going to criticise my own players in public. If we need to talk about anything that will be done in private.''

On Andrea Marcato at full-back, Mallett added: ''I thought he played well. There were a few mistakes with the kicking game because we wanted to play deep in their half but when he moved to fly-half we were down to 14 men. I've coached a lot worse sides than Italy. I coached South African province when they lost 81-3 to Orange Free State and four months later we only lost to them 25-21 at home.

''I'm enjoying this job and the players. The second half was a disaster but there is a place for Italy in this competition. We can improve.''

Italy skipper Sergio Parisse promised his side would improve and learn from the error of their ways in the second half as they prepare to take on France. "Sure we haven't performed as well as usual and we will work on our scrums and on cutting out our mistakes,'' he said.