Wales U20 head coach has challenged his players, soon to be heading to the Junior World Championships in Georgia, to develop a more ruthless mindset to help deliver more winning performances.
In the three tournaments post Covid, Wales have failed to reach the Top 4 semi-finals and Whiffin wants a better return in 2026 from a squad full of talent.
“Our mantra in camp has been how can we develop a more ruthless mindset that will allow us to put teams to the sword when we are on top. There has been a big focus on game management over the past three weeks,” said Whiffin.
“The results in the Six Nations weren’t what we wanted, although we were competitive throughout and our points difference at the end was our best since Covid.
“We’re putting more pressure on the boys to win as well as compete, and the challenge for the senior players in our group, many of whom have played a lot of senior rugby, is to be the stand-out performers at the tournament.”
Wales will face Georgia, Uruguay and reigning champions South Africa in their pool, starting with an emotional opening game against host nation Georgia in Tbilisi on 27 June. They have already played three games against South Africa in the build-up to the tournament.
The Junior Springboks have had a very thorough preparation ahead of the defence of their title. As well as winning The Rugby Championship U20 title for the firsts time, they have also played Georgia twice in Tbilisi and then hosted the same team along with Fiji and Chile.
They will come into the tournament later this month having played 10 matches this year – two domestic warm-up games and then eight internationals. The only one they didn’t win was the 29-29 draw with New Zealand.
They beat the Georgians 35-0 and 35-5 in Georgia and then 57-14 in South Africa. They beat Fiji 82-25 and Chile 97-0, while in The Rugby Championship U20 tournament they beat Australia 48-21 and Argentina 56-17 before drawing with the Junior All Blacks.
“We’ve been watching all the South African games in the Rugby Championship U20 competition and in their recent home series with Fiji, Chile and Georgia,” said Whiffin.
“They look pretty dominant and have proved they are the reigning world champions at U20 level for a reason. We play them in our final pool match, and we are challenging our boys to win the opening fixtures against Georgia and Uruguay to set up a big winner takes-all-match with the Junior Springboks.
“That’s the target, although we know we will face a huge battle in the opening game against Georgia. They nearly beat England in last year’s tournament and have been posting good results at U18 level in the recent Six Nations Festivals.
“They will be strong at the set-piece and have some big men playing in France who will challenge the gain line. Their No 8 Mikheil Shioshvili has played 11 times for Toulon in the Top 14 and Champions Cup this season.”
The Georgians beat Fiji 29-23 and Chile 59-26 in their two other games in South Africa and Junior Springboks head coach Kevin Foote was full of praise for the way they played against his side.
Welsh preparations for the tournament were helped by the recent high temperatures which gave the players a taste of what is to come later this month.
“The whole of last week was hot and tough. It was a peak week physically for us and it really gave the players a taste of the temperatures they can expect in Georgia,” added Whiffin.
“Those players who played in Italy last year were able to explain what it’s like to train and play in temperatures of 30+ degrees.”
If there is no change expected in the weather conditions from those experienced in Italy last year, there has been a slight change in the law surrounding tackle height. World Rugby are introducing a trial for the completion which reduces the legal tackle height from the shoulder area to the sternum.
“We’re a team whose primary tackler goes in low. Where we have put in a lot of work is with our assistant tackler because they have to be aware of the height they are hitting,” said Whiffin.
“It’s a question of making sure they are low enough in targeting the ball to ensure they are below the sternum. We are working a lot every day on our tackle technique because I’m sure the referees will be hyper-vigilant to begin with.
“We are seeing the positive in the ruling because the lower people have to tackle the more chance there is to get your arms free and to offload the ball.
“We’ve known about this for months and it has been used in the community game for a while. It is a trial for this U20 tournament, and it has been trialled in France.
“If it’s a success then I’m sure we will see it introduced into the senior game in the not-too-distant future.”
Whiffin has trimmed his initial training squad of 45 players down to 37 and is preparing to send his final 30 up to Scotland for a training game in two-weeks’ time. Both hooker Tom Howe (head) and scrum half Sion Davies (shoulder) have fully recovered from their injuries and Scarlets’ lock Will Evans has trained well and is fit to be considered.