Edwards remains full of belief

Wales need to beat Italy this weekend and likely Scotland the week after to secure a top four place, which should be enough to see them through.

But they head to Italy this weekend facing a side on the up, who have beaten France and Scotland already and who too will be totally focused on securing a place at the World Cup.

Wales were narrowly beaten by Ireland in round one before being soundly defeated by France in round two, but Edwards is staying positive.

??We had been focusing on the Ireland game very hard as obviously it was first up and also we were very disappointed with the result last season and wanted to put that right. We felt we dominated set pieces throughout the game and our ball retention was very good so to lose it so late in the match to a late score was disappointing but we can take a lot from the match regardless.??

??Against France I think it??s fair to say we caught the tail-end of the reaction there from their loss to Italy the week before and we just weren??t in the match for the first half an hour after which the game was lost.??

??It was a frantic opening period and they were very good but we were very frustrated as well because our set piece was penalised off the park and the way it was interpreted just went against us. That was tough because we felt that was an area we could really get something from and we couldn??t get anything there at all. We then saw a number of yellow cards which obviously didn??t help and it was a tough 80 minutes. We regrouped at half-time though and we didn??t fall apart and we want to move on now this weekend from it.??

Wales will hope against hope that the weather is bright in Italy this weekend as the Italians have shown in two mud-fests that they are game for the cause in poor weather, beating France and Scotland in terrible conditions already this season.

??We??ve watched the Italy games and both matches were played in horrendous conditions which really probably did suit the way they played. They adapted better than France and Scotland and they showed a real hunger on the floor which you need when it??s muddy like that. We are hoping the conditions will be better this weekend as we really believe in our running game but we will adapt to whatever we face.??

Edwards too is upbeat about the growing pool of talent at his disposal.

??There has been real progress at the top level over the past few years and that is manifesting itself with some real strength in depth. ?˜Over the past year or so seven or eight players have come through capable of being strong on the international scene and that is a big positive to us."

??These two upcoming games against Italy and Scotland have always been a huge focus for us no matter what would have happened so Italy winning two games doesn??t really change that. The girls know what we have to do and it is all to play for over the coming games. We want to qualify for the World Cup automatically and that is all we are thinking about.??