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Jones echoes coach’s sentiments

Jones echoes coach’s sentiments

Wales captain, Will Jones has echoed his coach’s sentiments and is targeting a fifth place finish in the World Rugby U20 Championship following an eight-try victory over Samoa.

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Jason Strange’s side got off the mark on Thursday with their first win in Tbilisi to secure their place in the middle tier as seventh seeds.

The Wales coach has been impressed at the way his side have bounced back from two earlier defeats to Australia and England, and is aiming to finish the tournament on a high note and finish with a fifth spot.
 
Wales will now face Scotland, whom they beat in the Six Nations and a pre-tournamnt warm-up, on Tuesday at 3pm (BST).
 
Jones insists Wales will take it one game at a time but admits the ultimate aim must be a fifth-place finish, with the winner of Tuesday’s encounter facing Australia or Italy.
 
He said: “Ideally we want a fifth place finish, that’s what we’re targeting after two unlucky defeats in the first two games but we’ll just worry about the next game.”
 
The young Ospreys flanker was in imperious form at the Avchala Stadium, picking off five turnovers and leading from the front throughout.
 
He has credited his side’s dominant set-piece and the front-five grunt for allowing the back row to flourish.
 
And while he admits small improvements must be made once again, he has called for more of the same from the pack.
 
He added: “Our scrum in that first half was very dominant, we worked on it in training and knew we could target this area as we pushed England off the scrum, we have to carry that through the rest of the tournament.
 
“When the back- ow and front-five are working hard it gives me opportunities to fly, if the set-piece is strong I can get out wide to get those jackals.
 
“There are a few areas we need to touch up on. We started really well but in the second-half against Samoa we got a bit ropey around the 60-minute mark but overall our defence in the first-half, to keep them to six-points against the wind is a positive.
 
“It gave us a lot of confidence and it was a very composed and mature performance from the boys. We targeted the bonus-point but the win first and we couldn’t look past that.”

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