WALES U19 LOOKING FORWARD TO FACING NZ IN IRB U19 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP

The Welsh youngsters, who finished fifth last year, face the defending champions New Zealand at Kings Park, Durban on Friday (April 1) in a repeat of the 1999 final in Neath. On that occasion the young All Blacks took the title against a Welsh team that boasted future Grand Slam stars in Rhys Williams, Dwayne Peel, Ceri Sweeney and Michael Owen.

The game against New Zealand this time is the first of three Pool matches which will determine whether or not Wales qualify for the last four by right, or have to place extra games to try to reach the semi-finals.

“Traditionally New Zealand have been very successful in this competition and they are the reigning champions,” said Jones. “We have tried to take away some of their aura in the players minds by referring to them as just another country, New Zealand, rather than the All Blacks.

“The good thing is they are coming with a completely different group of players to that which won the tournamnent last year, so it will be a fresh start for them as well as us.

“It is a great way for us to start the tournament by playing against a southern hemisphere side. This is the reason why this tournament has become so important to us because it exposes our players to different styles of rugby.”

Wales had an indifferent build-up to the tournament, beating Scotland, Italy and Ireland, but losing to both England and France.

“There is a settled look about our team. It is a very similar side to the one that finished the Six Nations campaign,” said Jones. “Jonathan Spratt is the captain and we’ve got a fully fit squad of players. It is a hard competition but it is a great breeding ground for the future.

“This has been our main focal point all season abnd the players have known for a long time that they would be facing New Zealand in our opening game. Ideally we want to win our three group games and go through to the last four automatically.

“We obviously want to win the tournament, that’s the goal, but we also have as a target in our minds to improve on our position of fifth place last year.

“Every country changes each year, so form goes out of the window. We need to be savvy, score tries and gain bonus points.”

After their assignment in Durban Wales move on to face Scotland on Tuesday and Japan next Saturday in their final Pool matches.

WALES UNDER 19
Jamie Roberts; Darren Daniel (Scarlets), Tom Cheeseman (Bath), Jonathan Spratt (Ospreys, Captain), Nick Gill; Gareth Williams-Davies (Blues), Martin Roberts; Rhys Gill (Blues), Ken Owens, Craig Mitchell, Bradley Davies, Will Jones, Will Waldron (Dragons), Ben Lewis, Adam Powell

Replacements: Richard Wilkes, Sam Wahdan, Daniel Lloyd Jones, Nicky Downs, Daniel George, Stuart Phillips, Aaron Bramwell, Alex Walker, Greg Evans, Lloyd Ryland, Ashley Smith