Wales have made a number of changes for round two of the 2023 Six Nations Under-18s Men’s Festival in Dublin where they will face Ireland - with five Dragons involved in the match day squad.
Jack Woods, Ioan Duggan and Harry Rees Weldon all start while Nick Thomas and Evan Minto are among the replacements.
Head coach Richie Pugh’s side will have to dust themselves down after losing to Italy in round one but having made a number of changes to the squad, he is looking forward to seeing how his young squad can respond this afternoon.
“There were certainly lessons in the game against Italy,” said Pugh, referring to his side’s 29-8 opening round defeat. “We had opportunities early on but didn’t take them and to be fair to them, they got three quick tries which was always tough from there because we were always chasing the game and our execution and accuracy needed to be better.
“But we are determined to put that right as we don’t think that was a reflection on how we are as a group. But now we have a great opportunity to do it four days later against a quality Irish team who had a good win against Scotland.”
The number of changes for Ireland isn’t a knee jerk reaction, as Pugh’s intention from the outset was to give an many players as possible the chance to shine at this level.
Osian Roberts moves from outside to inside centre with Cardiff Rugby’s Elijah Evans earning the No 13 jersey. Tom Bowen switches from wing to full back while there is a new halfback partnership with Joshua Pearce and Jack Woods replacing Owain Paskell and Harri Wilde at scrumhalf and outside half respectively.
There are changes in the front row where prop Ioan Emanual and hooker Evan Wood coming is with the latter captaining the side. Keanu Evans gets his first start, switching from the blindside to openside with Kyle Harris and Kane James the newcomers at blindside and No 8 respectively.
Wales U18 men v Ireland U18 men, Wed 12 April, Energia Park, 5.30pm
15 Tom Bowen 14 Harry Rees-Weldon 13 Elijah Evans 12 Osian Roberts 11 Ioan Duggan 10 Jack Woods 9 Joshua Pearce; 1 Ioan Emanuel 2 Evan Wood (Captain) 3 Sam Scott 4 Luke Evans 5 Kenzie Jenkins 6 Kyle Harris 7 Keanu Evans 8 Kane James
Replacements
16 Harry Thomas 17 Max Bignell 18 Ethan Say 19 Nick Thomas 20 Evan Minto 21 Scott Delnevo 22 Harri Wilde 23 Owain Paskell 24 Kodie Stone 25 Steffan Emanuel 26 Harry Beddall
