But scores from Mark Bennett and then Harry Leonard turned the game on its head to leave Italy clutching the wooden spoon.

And Wright put it all down to the togetherness in the squad that meant they never knew when they were beaten.

“In sport you need luck and with the amount of time that was added on that’s what we had. But we were so brave. We showed a lot of courage, a lot of character to come away with that win,” he said.

“We were two scores down with just a few minutes left and I thought the Italians just kept trying to kill the clock, we were trying to play rugby. We had very strong officials tonight and that was really good to see.

“We knew we were fitter and we just kept on trying to play with pace. Keep the tempo up and they would struggle. We turned them over at scrums, and in the loose, and to score two cracking tries so late in the game is a real testament to the guys.”