Wales U19 suffered a second half blitz from Ireland U19 to lose 24-46 in a friendly international at Talbot Athletic Ground this afternoon.
Tom Cottle and Osian Williams scored first half tries to have Wales head into the sheds tied at 12-12 at the break. Luke Evans and Codi Purnell crossed the white wash in the second spell, with the remaining points coming via the boots of Owen Erasmus and Ellis Lewis who slotted a conversion each, but it wasn’t enough as Ireland made the most of some basic and costly errors by the home side.
Wales head coach Richard Whiffin was magnanimous in defeat but believes his side will bounce back next week against Italy after having limited time to prepare for the clash against a well drilled Ireland side.
“Ireland, fair play, scored three quick fire tries after halftime but they didn’t have to do a lot to get them off the back of a few of our double errors which gave them some opportunities and they took them well. From then on, we were chasing after the game a little bit,” he said.
“So that was a little frustrating but the rationale for the game was to give guys opportunity and put them under the pressure of an international match and you see more about players in that environment than you can by training so it was a worthy exercise in that respect.
“We had three sessions together to get a team ready and play Ireland – I think that’s Ireland’s eighth game together since the start of the season so there’s a lot more cohesion in that team but our boys will be much better for having the hit out.”
Despite the defeat, several players caught Whiffin’s eye.
“I was really impressed with Tom Cottle and Luke Evans in the second row,” he said. “Both has high work rates both sides of the ball with some lovely touches.
“Sion Jones from Scarlets on the wing was elusive when he got the ball, he was pretty dangerous, and I was pretty impressed with Osian Darwin-Lewis. He spoke well during the game, you could see he was trying to cajole his teammates, and he had some big impacts on the ball so I was pleased with his output.”
Wales will now regroup this week before taking on Italy at the Wern next weekend.
“We picked a squad of 30 so there were seven boys that were training that didn’t play today so those guys have got an opportunity next week to put their hand up,” said Whiffin.
“We will tweak the team but again we still want some boys to get a little bit more time together. Hopefully there will be another big crowd in Merthyr as the last time we played Scotland just before Christmas there was a raucous crowd there so hopefully we’ll we’ll see something similar again next week.”