Head coach Richard Whiffin has named his Wales side to face France this Friday in round two of the U20 World Championship at Stadio Mario Battaglini, Rovigo (KO 2.30 UK time).
The side shows three changes to the starting line-up from the team that lost narrowly to Argentina in the opening round of Pool B clashes last Sunday.
In the pack Ospreys’ Dan Gemine replaces Nick Thomas in the second row while Cardiff’s Tom Bowen starts on the wing in place of Aidan Boshoff, after impressing from the bench against Los Pumitas. His Cardiff teammate Harri Wilde replaces Harri Ford at fly half while RGC lock Tom Cottle and Cardiff centre Osian Darwin-Lewis are additions to the subs bench.
France began their campaign with a 49-11 rout over Spain and Whiffin is expecting another tough battle in the mid afternoon heat of Rovigo.
“They have got a big physical pack with a lot of powerful runners and as always they have got some great talent in the outside backs, marshalled very well from their nine and 10 who see space and kick well; they have got a full court game so we will have to be at our best to counter that,” said Whiffin.
“It’s going to be a very tough game for everyone really, I think it is going to be 35 degrees by the time we get out on the field so it’s going to be tough. It will be a battle of survival of the fittest really and being smart around energy levels and how we manage the game and how we manage the substitutes are all going to be important,” he added.
Despite snatching defeat from the jaws of victory against Argentina after a titanic battle, Whiffin was still able to take positives from the narrow loss.
“We were really proud of our performance – we did a lot of good things both sides of the ball, some of our defensive goal-line stands showed a real brotherhood and tightness of the group. We were incredibly dangerous with the ball but unfortunately in the second half we didn’t get enough possession through a little bit of our own errors and to be fair Argentina, their set-piece dominance strangled the game a little bit.
“We’ve reviewed well and understand we need to get better, and our attention is fully focused on France. Everyone was disappointed [after the loss], we reviewed it as we would normally and found there was lots of good things – the boys are a resilient group, they turned it around and they are in a good place to attack France,” concluded Whiffin.
Wales U20 v France U20, Fri 4th July, Stadio Mario Battaglini, Rovigo, KO 2.30pm
15 Jack Woods (Bath Rugby, 3 caps)
14 Elijah Evans (Cardiff Rugby, 8 caps)
13 Osian Roberts (Sale Sharks, 4 caps)
12 Steffan Emanuel (Cardiff Rugby, 11 caps)
11 Tom Bowen (Cardiff Rugby, 6 caps)
10 Harri Wilde (Cardiff Rugby, 18 caps)
9 Sion Davies (Cardiff Rugby, 5 caps);
1 Ioan Emanuel (Bath Rugby, 9 caps)
2 Harry Thomas (Scarlets, 16 caps)
3 Sam Scott (Bristol Bears, 16 caps)
4 Kenzie Jenkins (Bristol Bears, 6 caps)
5 Dan Gemine (Ospreys, 5 caps)
6 Deian Gwynne (Gloucester, 5 caps)
7 Harry Beddall (c) (Dragons, 12 caps)
8 Evan Minto (Dragons, 6 caps)
Replacements
16 Saul Hurley (Aberavon, 3 caps)
17 Louie Trevett (Bristol Bears, 6 caps)
18 Owain James (Dragons, 4 caps)
19 Tom Cottle (RGC, 4 caps)
20 Caio James (Gloucester, 4 caps)
21 Ellis Lewis (Neath RFC, 1 cap)
22 Harri Ford (Dragons, 15 caps)
23 Osian Darwin-Lewis (Cardiff Rugby, uncapped)
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