UNDER 21s SET TO FACE WORLD CHAMPIONS
In just the same way that the Wales U19s were drawn against New Zealand at the start of this month’s IRB Under 19 World Championship in South Africa, so the U21s will meet the junior All Blacks in the tournament’s opening match on Thursday, 9 June in Mendoza.
“It’s a little bit disappointing that we didn’t warrant a higher ranking than fifth after winning the Grand Slam this season, but I guess they’ve looked at last year’s finishing positions and ranked everyone according to that,” said Wales Under coach Chris Davey. “What it means is that the Welsh players have been given a fantastic opportunity to test themselves right from the first minute of the tournament by having an opening game against the defending champions.
“We are going to Argentina to win this tournament for the first time and that means we would have to play New Zealand at some stage. Getting them first up means they won’t have had time as much time to gel together.
“They have been the standard bearers in this tournament for so long, although the Six Nations sides have been closing the gap on them slowly. Now we will be able to see just how close the gap is.
“We had our first session together since winning the Grand Slam last Sunday and everyone is fired up for the trip. This news will give the players even more incentive as they prepare for the tournament.
“The whole point of going to tournaments like this is to meet different teams from around the world. We didn’t want to travel half way around the world to find ourselves up against European opposition that we know so well.
“What we’ve ended up with is a mouth-watering start to a campaign that we hope will at least take us to the semi-finals.”
After the first-up clash with the junior All Blacks, Wales will face Scotland on 13 June before completing their Pool matches against the host nation, Argentina, on 17 June.
In order to qualify for the last four Wales will have to top Pool, which also includes Australia and Canada. The young Wallabies have to play Scotland in their opening match before facing Argentina and New Zealand.
“We’ve got to be as competitive as possible right from the start and we must get something out of our opening game if we are to reach our targets,” added Davey. “All the players we used to win the Grand Slam, with the exception of the Llanelli centre Gavin Evans, are fit and everyone is relishing the challenge ahead of them.”
Top seeds New Zealand, who beat Ireland in last year’s final in Scotland, are in the same Pool as Argentina and Scotland and meet Canada and then Australia after clashing with Wales.
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