WHEN in Rome it took Wales until the second half before cutting loose and centre Jamie Roberts has warned it may take time to crack the Italians in the Six Nations finale in Cardiff.

There will be no Super Saturday in 2016 with this weekend's meeting with the Azzurri contrasting starkly with last year, when Warren Gatland's men headed to the Stadio Olimpico with the target of racking up the points to pile the pressure on title rivals Ireland and England.

They did just that, running in nine tries in a 61-20 success only for the Irish and English to respond and condemn them to third spot.

After last weekend's disappointment in the title showdown at Twickenham the hope is that Wales will finish with a flourish at Principality Stadium against an Italian side who are fresh from a 58-15 hammering in Dublin and who have shipped 20 tries in four Tests.

But powerhouse Harlequins centre Jamie Roberts points out that it took a while before they enjoyed a Rome romp 12 months ago, that it took plenty of softening up and the visitors enjoyed a slender 14-13 advantage at the break.

He has warned that the approach that saw them come storming back in stunning fashion in London last Saturday evening won't necessarily work in the first part of the Six Nations triple-header.

"That last 15 minutes was against a tired English side and whether that sort of rugby would have created opportunities from minute one I'm not really sure," he said.

"We scored some nice tries but have to go out and impose ourselves on the Italians. Traditionally it's taken us 50 or 60 minutes to crack these guys, last year we won the game by 41 points but were more or less level at half-time.

"We have box clever and play correctly but we played some good stuff in the last 20 against England and hopefully we can repeat that from the off this weekend."

Wales are still licking their wounds after a lethargic performance at Twickenham that helped Eddie Jones' side on their way to a victory that sets up a Grand Slam shot in Paris.

Roberts has enjoyed great success on the Test scene with his country and the Lions but such a meek performance ranks up among his biggest disappointments.

"It was one of the toughest losses certainly," he said. "It's a tough one to take, losing to England and they've won the championship. Huge congratulations to them and best of luck to them in Paris.

"That's sport, you don't win all the time and credit to England, they played a better rugby match than us.

"We have to learn from it, take the loss on the chin, face the music, roll our sleeves up and play well this week facing an Italian side who will be determined to turn around their loss away to Ireland.

"It's a new week and we are fortunate to play a sport and do a job where we can rectify things and right a few wrongs."

Head coach Gatland has kept faith with his side, making a solitary unenforced change (scrum-half Rhys Webb starting ) and three injury-forced alterations (wing Hallam Amos, lock Luke Charteris and flanker Justin Tipuric coming in). He will expect the retained 11 to show energy from the off.

"There are so many variables and as players a lot of us have been scratching our heads as to why we didn't turn up in the first half," said Roberts.

"It's hard to put a finger on why but I'm not going to make excuses. That's not what we are about. We are not going to point at loads of little things, ultimately we lost a game of rugby and they played better than us. That's the black and white of it."