WALES...44 ITALY...10: Six cracking tries from the Wales backs, their biggest win in the championship for 94 years and a departing coach cheered to the rafters of the stadium - an air of unreality hung over Cardiff at the end of this Six Nations campaign.
Steve Hansen, ever the Kiwi realist, will hand over the team to the new coach Mike Ruddock this week like a man selling a cherished car that may have spluttered over the winter but is running smoothly now. This Welsh team looked to have been given a full service after its breakdown in Dublin five weeks earlier.
As David Moffett, the Welsh Rugby Union's chief executive, acknowledged: "The players couldn't have given Steve a better send-off and Gerald Davies told me he couldn't remember a Welsh coach ever being cheered off - although Steve might think the crowd were just relieved to see him go."
Hansen knows a one-sided win against a side who left their form in Rome is no guarantee Wales will beat the All Blacks when he returns here as assistant to Graham Henry in the autumn. His record since taking over the Wales job from Henry is modest - 11 wins from 31 games - but Wales are a far cry from the side that was so lamely whitewashed in the Six Nations last spring.
Wales's back play in the tournament has been a revelation, the 10 tries scored contradicting the notion that suffocating modern international defences cannot be prised open. Hansen's decision to play Gareth Thomas at full back has paid dividends, with the player passing Ieuan Evans's try-scoring record 15 minutes after the break when Wales turned over ball for the umpteenth time in the Italian half and Gareth Cooper worked an opening for Thomas to cross from Italy's 22 for his 34th try.
The Italians were sunk by a four-try barrage in 15 disastrous minutes in the second half, including a score by Tom Shanklin with his first touch; he had been on the field for all of 55 seconds. The wings Rhys and Shane Williams scored a try in each half.
Ruddock knows Wales will need forwards who can provide enough ball if they are to mix it with the major rugby nations and a summer trip to Argentina and South Africa will be an acid test of his pack's mettle. But the switch of Michael Owen to the second row appears to be paying off and Wales competed well in the set-piece, the strength of the Italian game.
For Italy's Kiwi coach John Kirwan this could also be a Six Nations farewell. Kirwan has not been given an extended contract. He admitted a crushingly disappointing display was by far the worst of Italy's campaign, and the team is yet to win away in five seasons.
Andrea De Rossi, the dignified Italian captain, cut a desolate figure after the game. The flanker, converted to number eight here, has led by example, tackling himself to a standstill. But De Rossi will be haunted by the memory of Rhys Williams flying past him on the touchline for his first try.
WALES: Thomas; R Williams, Taylor, Harris, S Williams; S Jones, Cooper; Duncan Jones, McBryde, Jenkins, Llewellyn, Owen, Charvis (capt), M Williams, Daffyd Jones. Replacements: Shanklin for Harris (60 mins); Sweeney for Jones, Peel for Cooper, Davies for McBryde (all 73 mins); Popha for Dafydd Jones (76 mins); Sidoli for Owen, Evans for Duncan Jones (79 mins).
ITALY: Canale; Mazzucatto, Masi, Stoica, Dallan; De Marigny, Griffen; Lo Cicero, Ongaro, Castrogiovanni, Dellape, Del Fava, Bortolami, Persico, De Rossi (capt). Replacements: Orlando for Persico (36 mins); Leonessa for Dallan (53 mins); Mandelli for Del Fava, Perugini for Castrogiovanni (both 59 mins); Mirco Bergamasco for Mazzucatto (65 mins); Picone for Masi (73 mins).
Referee: M Lawrence (South Africa).
