French finale for Welsh youngsters

In fact, these young women have impressed in a number of major sevens events this year, most notably winning bronze at the Commonwealth Youth Games in the Bahamas, and claiming silver at the recent UK School Games in Loughborough.
 
Their coach, Jonathan Hooper, thinks this finale might prove to be the most challenging tournament yet for his girls. “The challenge at the School Games was the schedule, dealing with game after game,” he says. “In this instance, it’ll be a case of quality rather than quantity.”
 
Hooper is referring to Wales’ opponents in Pool B: USA, England and Russia, which he describes as “three physical games.”
 
Wales make only one change to their side, with Lleucu George welcomed back into the fold after making her senior international debut in this summer’s Women’s Rugby World Cup.
 
“Lleucu knows how we work after her time with us at the Commonwealth Youth Games, so she’ll fit right back in,” says Hooper. “I’m sure she’ll bring her own strengths to the team, and with those physical encounters we’re expecting, she’ll be very much to the fore.”
 
He says Wales have learnt from missing out on gold in the School Games final, when they got sucked into Ireland’s physical game plan. “We had a camp last weekend where we worked on that particular area,” he says. “We didn’t focus on it for too long, because we know we can play a physical game, so it was just a case of bringing it out again.
 
“We know what we can do when we’ve got the ball. Teams will try to stop us doing that, so we’ve got to be sharper around the contact area. When we let the ball do the work, we’re a tough team to defend against.”
 
This will be the first time the team has faced Russia and the USA, whilst they played England in a warm-up match before the Commonwealths. “All the girls had feedback after the School Games, and they’ve been given some work-ons with regard to Vichy and going forward into next season,” says Hooper. “It’ll be interesting to see how they respond in what will be a very exciting tournament.”
 
Wales Women U18 Sevens: Bethan Lewis (c); Amy Morgan; Manon Johnes; Maisie Mackenzie; Lleucu George; Sara Jones; Kayleigh Powell; Imogen Shide; Lucy Packer; Ffion Jones; Courtney Greenway; Caitlin Lewis.
 
This weekend’s tournament will be streamed live on the Rugby Europe website.