England’s young guns head into the clash with a clean sweep of wins this season against Scotland, Italy and Japan High Schools and with a big physical pack, will pose a major examination for Simon King’s side.
The Wales coach is fully aware of how difficult the task will be but while he says England will pose the most difficult test so far this season for his young side, he predicts Wales will be England’s most difficult proposition this term as well.
“Like all English sides at the age grade levels, they are a good team with plenty of strength and no little experience,” he said. “We understand that and we also understand that they will be a confident squad coming to Wales. However, it is the first time we have played them on home soil at this age and we want to win the game and further confirm our own development as a team and as individuals.”
King’s side have shown plenty of class and enthusiasm in their campaign this season with an added bonus sure to be the fact that a number of players will return next season at the same age group.
“We have plenty of boys who will be back in this set-up next season. For me, that’s further testimony to how our academy system is preparing our players at an early age.
“these boys are coming to us a year young, but they are in good shape and have terrific rugby knowledge. As you can see by our results, they have certainly not been overawed in any way this season,” said King.
An opening defeat of France, 27-15 in Soissons, was followed by an excellent 29-6 victory over Italy in Aberavon. Two games staged in Italy saw a narrow defeat to Ireland (22-25) which was quickly followed by a 23-13 victory over Scotland last weekend.
“It was a case of good and bad for us in Italy,” explained King. “We were confident going into the Ireland game, yet to be honest we didn’t play that well and they took their only three chances to win the game. However, we highlighted areas in which we could improve and challenged the players to go out against Scotland and do the business.
“We’ve picked a strong side for England and some players were unfortunate to miss out but I’m confident the players can go out and do themselves justice.”
Wales U18s vs England 15 Tom Prydie 14 George North 13 Ben John (vice captain) 12 Jack Gadd 11 Luke Williams 10 Lewis Robling 9 Aled Davies 8 Ben Thomas 7 Thomas Young 6 Edward Siggery 5 Macauley Cook 4 Lloyd Peers (captain) 3 Rhodri Jones 2 Ieuan Davies 1 Rowan Jenkins
Replacements: 16 Lewis Smout 17 Gareth Harvey 18 David Barry 19 Dan Baker 20 Daniel Davies 21 Matthew Morgan 22 Dale Ford
