Imposing Cardiff Blues forward Shane Lewis-Hughes, who started every match in last season’s Grand Slam-winning campaign, is named at blindside in his first appearance of this year’s competition having recovered from injury.
After a record 65-34 victory away to Scotland a fortnight ago, head coach Jason Strange believes his team will take a lot of confidence into Saturday evening’s match against the undefeated Irish. “The most pleasing aspect of that game in Scotland was our style of play, which is our biggest focus as a team,” says Strange, whose side scored an impressive eight tries at Broadwood Stadium.
“We’re starting to realise the way we want to play and the qualities we have as a side, so that’s something else I want to come to the fore at Parc Eirias on Saturday.” However, he adds: “As well as we played in Scotland, we also have a few things to correct, which we’ll be looking to do this weekend. Our rate of progress from game one to game three has been excellent, though, which is mainly down to the players’ desire to get better.”
With Wales on red-hot form, and Ireland coming to North Wales on the back of three consecutive wins in the competition, Strange says an enthralling contest at Parc Eirias is nothing more than the supporters there deserve. “After the atmosphere they created in our last home game, the team can’t wait to get back to Colwyn Bay. Playing against a quality side like Ireland is also another opportunity for us to get better as we build towards the U20 World Rugby Championship in the summer.”
Wales U20 team to face Ireland U20
15 Rhun Williams (Cardiff Blues)
14 Corey Baldwin (Scarlets)
13 Cameron Lewis (Cardiff Blues)
12 Keiran Williams (Ospreys)
11 Ryan Conbeer (Scarlets)
10 Ben Jones (Cardiff Blues)
9 Dane Blacker (Cardiff Blues)
1 Rhys Carre (Cardiff Blues)
2 Corrie Tarrant (Cardiff Blues)
3 Keiron Assiratti (Cardiff Blues)
4 Alex Dombrandt (Cardiff Met)
5 Sean Moore (Pontypridd)
6 Shane Lewis-Hughes (Cardiff Blues)
7 Will Jones (c) (Ospreys)
8 Aled Ward (Cardiff Blues)
Replacements
16 Owen Hughes (Newport Gwent Dragons)
17 Steff Thomas (Scarlets)
18 Chris Coleman (Newport Gwent Dragons)
19 Jack Pope (Bridgend)
20 James Botham (Cardiff Blues)
21 Reuben Morgan-Williams (Ospreys)
22 Phil Jones (Ospreys)
23 Ioan Nicholas (Scarlets)
This game will be shown live on S4C. Ticket information can be found here.
