Head Coach Richard Whiffin has confirmed his Wales side to play in the U20 World Rugby Championship in Italy between June 29-July 19 - and he names five Dragons to travel to the tournament.
With matches held in four cities across the Lombardia and Veneto regions, Whiffin has named a settled squad of 30 players with Neath scrum half Ellis Lewis the only uncapped player named in the squad.
Harry Beddall, Evan Minto, Harri Ford, Owain James and Nick Thomas are all named. Dragons scrum half Logan Franklin was unavailable for selection after injuring his arm in last Friday’s warm-up game against Italy.
“I think it is a very balanced squad with some quality experience returning from last year and some added emphasis from guys who have performed well during the Six Nations,” said Whiffin.
“We’ve got a pack that we feel can really deliver at the World Cup and look to be dominant at both the scrum and line-out and as a team we fully understand how we want to play. We’ve got some fantastic workrate in our outside backs that will not only get the ball back for us but be a real threat when we’ve got the ball.
“I think we’ve seen over the course of the Six Nations and these warm-up games we’ve got a set of backs that will put us in the right areas of the field and be smart with how we want to play.”
Whiffin used more than 40 players in the two warm-up games against world champions England and Italy before finalising his squad for the global tournament where his side start their Pool B fixtures against Argentina before facing France and Spain.
“Those games allowed us to challenge ourselves in different areas,” explained Whiffin. “The England game at Pontypool was always going to be tough on the back of what was a really tough training week and then to challenge ourselves against the world champs was brilliant.
“I thought it cemented a few thoughts in our heads - 14-14 at 60 minutes I thought we had competed well and then we had a very polished performance against Italy - the fact we managed to get 40 plus players game time over those two games gave the coaches and myself the ammunition we needed to pick the squad.
“We’re excited about the championship but we still have a week’s training ahead of us before we get on the plane for Italy but we’ve done the hard work in terms of whittling down what was a really strong training squad to the 30 selected.
“I want to say a huge thank you to all the players that worked their socks off during the training camp – I said to them after the Italy game that the strength in the group is in those guys as there a lot of quality players that have helped us and a lot of good players haven’t made it to the plane. We really appreciated everyone’s efforts. The tournament is very attritional and we will likely need to call on some of those players through the tournament.”
On the back of a Six Nations campaign which saw Wales beat defending world champions England and Ireland, who are both seeded higher in the U20 World Championship, Whiffin says Wales travel to Italy with no fear.
“I think the pleasing thing is the boys are confident and they know they can go out there and compete with so called top teams in the competition and we’re not afraid. We’re going out there saying we want to get into that top semi-final bracket and once you get into that bracket you never know what’s going to happen,” he said.
“It means we’ll need to play well and back those performances up but the boys are confident and we were close last year but didn’t get over the line – I think we’ve proved in the Six nations we can knock over some of those tighter games so hopefully we can see that in the World Cup."
Wales U20 World Championship squad
Forwards (17)
Ioan Emanuel (Bath Rugby)
Louie Trevett (Bristol Bears)
Harry Thomas (Scarlets)
Saul Hurley (Aberavon)
Evan Wood (Pontypool)
Sam Scott (Bristol Bears)
Owain James (Dragons)
Jac Pritchard (Scarlets)
Luke Evans (Exeter Chiefs)
Kenzie Jenkins (Bristol Bears)
Nick Thomas (Dragons)
Tom Cottle (Cardiff Rugby)
Dan Gemine (Ospreys)
Deian Gwynne (Gloucester)
Harry Beddall (Dragons – Capt)
Caio James (Gloucester)
Evan Minto (Dragons)
Backs (13)
Sion Davies (Cardiff Rugby)
Ellis Lewis (Neath)
Harri Wilde (Cardiff Rugby)
Harri Ford (Dragons)
Steffan Emanuel (Cardiff Rugby)
Elis Price (Scarlets)
Elijah Evans (Cardiff Rugby)
Osian Roberts (Sale Sharks)
Osian Darwin-Lewis (Cardiff Rugby)
Aidan Boshoff (Bristol Bears)
Lewis Edwards (Ospreys)
Jack Woods (Bath Rugby)
Tom Bowen (Cardiff Rugby)
U20 World Rugby Championship Wales’ Pool B Fixtures
- Sunday 29 June – 7.30pm - Payanini Centre, Verona Argentina U20 v Wales U20
- Friday 4 July – 2.30pm - Stadio Mario Battaglini, Rovigo France U20 v Wales U20
- Wednesday 9 July - 2.30pm – Payanini Centre, Verona Wales U20 v Spain U20
WORLD RUGBY U20 CHAMPIONSHIP 2025
29 June-19 July | Stadio San Michele (Calvisano), Stadio Mario Battaglini (Rovigo), Payanini Center (Verona), Stadio Luigi Zaffanella (Viadana)
- Pool A: England (1), Australia (6), South Africa (7), Scotland (12)
- Pool B: France (2), Argentina (5), Wales (8), Spain (11)
- Pool C: New Zealand (3), Ireland (4), Georgia (9), Italy (10)
Pool matches
- Match day 1: Sunday, 29 June (Calvisano and Verona)
- Match day 2: Friday, 4 July (Rovigo and Viadana)
- Match day 3: Wednesday, 9 July (Calvisano and Verona)
Knockout matches
- Match day 4: Monday, 14 July (Verona and Viadana)
- Match day 5 (final and ranking matches): Saturday, 19 July (Calvisano and Rovigo)
I think it is a very balanced squad with some quality experience returning from last year and some added emphasis from guys who have performed well during the Six Nations...
