Wales head coach Siwan Lillicrap has made five changes to the side that kicked-off the Six Nations U18 Women’s Festival in Colwyn Bay in the first game against France for their final outing against Italy - and again includes Lily Hawkins, Tia Jones, Angel Band, Evie Hill, Marnie George, Isla McMullen and Katie Johnson from Dragons in the match day squad.
The fifth and final game of the highly-successful Festival at Parc Eirias will be over the full 70 minutes, rather than 35 minute matches earlier in the tournament, and the host nation will be hoping to end on a high.
To date they have won once and lost three times, although they took the lead in two of their defeats.
Full back Katie Johnson, wing Ffion Davies, a try scorer against England, scrum half Seren Lockwood, top scorer with two tries to date, and back row star Jorja Aiono are the changes to the side that opened the tournament against the French.
“It has been tough to pick just one team having given everyone in the squad at least one start on each of the first two days of the tournament,” said Lillicrap.
“We’ve been happy with much of the progress made by the squad in the time we’ve been together and it has been a fantastic learning curve for all the players. They can only get better from this experience, for many of them their first taste of representative honours.
“The highlight to date has been the win over Scotland, although we played very well in patches in every game. We went 14 points clear against England, but then three yellow cards really hurt us. That was probably the harshest lesson of the lot so far. Now the girls are determined to finish on a high.
“Italy started brilliantly with a 19-19 draw with England on Day 1. They then lost 20-0 to the Irish and were beaten by the French, 26-0, on Day 2 before ending with a 12-5 triumph against the Scots.
“Those results are fairly similar to ours and with their top team going all out for a win to finish off their campaign, they will be very dangerous opponents.
“Our girls have trained hard and prepared well for the longer game and we’ll be looking for a bit more control and better discipline.”
The game kicks off at 2.15pm and follows on from the heavyweight clash between France and England at 12 noon. The tournament comes to a close with the match between Scotland and Ireland at 4.30pm.
Wales (v Italy) Katie Johnson; Saran Jones, Hannah Lane, Isla McMullen, Ffion Davies; Hanna Marshall, Seren Lockwood; Crystal James, Shanelle Williams, Evie Hill, Alaw Pyrs, Angel Band, Jorja Aiono, Lola Mitchell, Branwen Metcalfe (captain)
Reps: Tai Jones, Stella Orrin, Elan Jones, Robyn Davies, Evie Hill, Lily Hawkins, Rhiannon Griffin, Marnie George
