Wales lost 19-10 in their opening World Rugby U20 Championship in Calvisano, with a try for Garyn Smith, conversion for Jarrod Evans and Dan Jones penalty their only points to France’s three tries and two conversions.
Wales must now prepare for another tough encounter, also in Calvisano, against Six Nations champions England on Saturday (7.30pm UK time, S4C).
“It was a poor start, we didn’t make France work hard for their tries with a kick charged down and losing our own scrum on our line. There was a lot of inaccuracy which was disappointing and it was the same in the second half.
“There were some positives. Our set-piece was solid, our defence was good in phase play and we got back a bit of momentum with Garyn’s try. We worked ourselves back into a position to get within seven points and get something from the game but it wasn’t to be.”
Wales Under 20 beat England 21-15 at Eirias Park in the Six Nations, but the double world champions will no doubt provide a huge challenge this weekend.
“We beat them in the Six Nations so we know we are capable of getting a win,” said Hodges, “and that is what we have to do if we have any chance of getting into the top four. We will be doing our homework on England, starting with their game against Japan. One thing is for sure, we can’t afford to give points away as we did this evening.”
Wales centre Owen Watkin added, “It was a very frustrating game. We didn’t play as we had trained, the standard of concentration wasn’t good enough at this level and there are no excuses. We need to beat England and we must train well and play well in order to do that.”
