The young Welshmen narrowly lost 34-38 in the final play of the first of their FIRA-AER tournament game, but are aiming for a scalp when they play hosts France at Tarbes on Saturday.
Rees has made three changes to the side that started against England. Ospreys prop Daniel Suter will start at tight head after replacing Bradley Thyer in the opening minutes of last week’s game, Owen Jenkins, son of former Wales hooker Garin, starts on the right wing in place of Harry Robinson, and Rhys Patchell replaces Sam Davies at outside half.
Rees said, “We have rewarded Daniel for doing so well for most of last Sunday’s match, Owen is a natural replacement for Harry, who joined the squad for the England game, and we are grateful to him and his family for that, and Rhys Patchell deserves his chance to start an international at outside half, although the change is no reflection on Sam Davies’ performances.
“We don’t want to forget about last week’s game because we have to learn from it. It wasn’t a case of hard luck – at key points in the game we made some set piece errors and all credit to England, they kept going for the full duration.
“However, there is still a lot of excitement in the camp at the prospect of playing another international, and we have the chance to achieve something special if we can beat France on their own patch.
“We have progressed enormously since losing to France in our opening game of the season, the way we played last weekend and the fact that we could and should have beaten England shows that.
“We are determined to stick to our wide, attacking style, creating opportunities and to make further improvements to our overall game for this final push.”
Wales Under 18 v France (Tarbes, Saturday 23 April, 5pm):
Jordan Williams (Scarlets); Owen Jenkins (Blues), Ryan E Evans (Blues), Cory Allen (Blues), Jake Randall (Scarlets); Rhys Patchell (Blues), Rhodri Williams (Scarlets); Thomas Davies (Blues), Jack Dando (Blues), Daniel Suter (Ospreys), Jack Jones (Ospreys), Rhodri Hughes (Ospreys), Ellis Jenkins (capt, Blues), Daniel Thomas (Scarlets), Ieuan Jones (Dragons).
Replacements: Evan Yardley (Ospreys), Calum Lewis (Blues), Bradley Thyer (Blues), Sion Bennett (Scarlets), Lewis Young (Blues), Alex Schwarz (RGC), Sam Davies (Ospreys), Ryan J Evans (Ospreys), Josh Davies (Dragons), Elliot Dee (Dragons)
