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South Wales Argus
4 days ago
- Sport
- South Wales Argus
England beat Wales 47-14 in World Rugby U20 Championship warm-up
A sizeable crowd, both in the ground and watching on from the grass bank outside the fencing, was treated to an entertaining if loose encounter in Torfaen. Wales led 14-7 at the break thanks to tries in the first quarter through centre Elijah Evans – despite not grounding the ball – and flanker Caio James, with openside Reggie Hammick crossing for England. The world champions responded with a dominant second-half showing, scoring tries through blindside George Timmins, Hammick, wing Tyler Offiah, flanker Jonny Weimann and The game went from 14-14 to a hammering in the blink of the eye as English pace and power told in the final quarter. It was, of course, only a warm-up fixture with with no anthems, some lenient refereeing to try and let things flow, no penalties kicked at goal and plenty of subs. Both sides will have learnt plenty and will hope that the inevitable casualties soon get the all clear from the medics. Wales dashed English Grand Slam dreams at Cardiff Arms Park in March with a 23-13 victory earned by going toe-to-toe with the world champions and rattling them. That meant that this tune-up was sure to have its spicey moments, and that's exactly what both sets of coaches wanted in the build up to the tournament in Italy. The two teams were drastically different to that Six Nations encounter with five starters retained in the home XV and three in the English selection – opportunity knocked for spots in the final squad. Wales were captained by Dragons number eight Evan Minto in his hometown and he was one of five starters who played for Pontypool in Super Rygbi Cymru last season, with flanker Ryan Jones, tighthead Owain James, fly-half Harri Ford and wing Ioan Duggan the others. Pooler and Cardiff Met hooker Evan Wood was on the bench along with Dragons scrum-half Logan Franklin and influential openside Harry Beddall, who moves to Rodney Parade from Leicester this summer. FORTUNATE: Wales got the opener despite Elijah Evans knocking on (Image: Mark Lewis/Huw Evans Agency) There was, understandably, an element of scrappiness to the opening exchanges and that was how the opener was scored after eight minutes. Scrum-half Sion Davies hacked the ball on and Cardiff teammate Evans won the foot race, although he didn't ground the ball and was lucky that referee Ben Breakspear awarded him a try that Ford converted rather than a knock on. Wales were bossing matters with play almost exclusively in the English half, and it was 14-0 after 18 minutes with Gloucester flanker Caio James at the bottom of a driving lineout. The visitors, to the frustration of their coaching team, had barely fired a shot and were second best in all facets of the game but were on the scoreboard in the 25th minute. Fly-half Josh Bellamy followed a line break with a calm assist for openside Hammick to show a serious turn of speed to finish from 30 metres, with Bellamy adding the extras. Wales were causing problems with their variety of kicks and one dab through earned a chance from a five-metre scrum as half-time approached, only for England to get over the ball and win a penalty to release the pressure. A fair few players were blowing – what the fixture was designed for – and glad to hear the half-time whistle with the hosts 14-7 to the good as the coaches passed on some pearls of wisdom. There were some changes at the break and one of the new boys, Luke Evans, was swiftly shown yellow after some overexuberance. England were dominant against 14-man Wales but failed to take chances to level due to a lack of composure in the 22. However, the pressure eventually told right at the end of the sin-bin period with a close range try by blindside Timmins after a scrum against the head, Bellamy levelling the scores with a simple conversion. England should have been in front after 56 minutes after some lovely handling released Offiah but the son of Martin dropped the ball over the line after trying to bump off last-man Jack Woods, his Bath teammate from Abercarn. It was getting manic, which led to a comical Welsh 'try' just past the hour and, ultimately, a turning point. Wing Aidan Boshoff went down with cramp and got treatment and was retreating back to the defensive line when he claimed an England cross-kick and raced away. Mr Breakspear eventually went back to penalise the Bristol speedster for being offside, England kicked to the corner and then won a penalty try. The visitors were 21-14 up when it looked like they could have been down by the same scoreline, then reaped the rewards of daring to play from a loose kick and iffy chase to work space for Hammick to race away. England were running wild and Offiah picked off a pass to scorch down the right, Weimann went over down the left and another interception led to Nic Allison breaking away. Wales scorers: tries – E Evans, C James; conversions – H Ford (2). England scorers: tries – R Hammick (2), G Timmins, penalty, T Offiah, J Weimann, N Allison; conversions – J Bellamy (2), B Coen (3). Wales U20 : Lewis Edwards (Ospreys); Ioan Duggan (Dragons), Elijah Evans (Cardiff Rugby), Elis Price (Scarlets), Aidan Boshoff (Bristol Bears); Harri Ford (Dragons), Sion Davies (Cardiff Rugby); Cam Tyler-Grocott (Cardiff Rugby), Saul Hurley (Aberavon), Owain James (Dragons), Dan Gemine (Ospreys), Kenzie Jenkins (Bristol Bears), Ryan Jones (Dragons), Caio James (Gloucester), Evan Minto (Dragons, captain). Replacements: Evan Wood (Pontypool/Cardiff Met), Louie Trevett (Bristol Bears), Jac Pritchard (Scarlets), Tom Cottle (RGC), Luke Evans (Exeter Chiefs), Deain Gwynne (Gloucester), Harry Beddall (Dragons), Logan Franklin (Dragons), Lloyd Lucas (Cardiff Rugby), Dylan Scott (Cardiff Met), Steffan Emanuel (Cardiff Rugby), Osian Darwin-Lewis (Cardiff Rugby), Jack Woods (Bath Rugby), Dylan Alford (Scarlets). Referee: Ben Breakspear (Wales).
BBC News
05-02-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
Wales U20s make four changes for Italy trip
Wales Under-20s have made four changes for Friday's game against Italy with head coach Richard Whiffin insisting that the heavy opening defeat against France is behind side lost 63-19 to France in the opening round of the 2025 Under-20s Six Nations and face Italy in Treviso on Friday Sharks centre Osian Roberts is set to make his Under-20 debut in place of Elijah Evans while Cardiff Rugby wing Tom Bowen, a second half replacement against France, will make his first start and replaces Harry Bears prop Louie Trevett starts in place of Ioan Emanuel and lock Nick Thomas is replaced by Ospreys' Dan Gemine."The scoreline didn't really reflect how the game was," Whiffin said of the loss against France."We felt we were in the game the whole time, so we've pushed on that and looked at the positives but obviously there are areas where we need to improve. "We've gone through the game in large detail and there were lots of positives to come out of it. I thought our pack fronted up incredibly well."Up to 50 minutes we were right in the game but a couple of contentious decisions probably didn't go our way. Yes, the wheels came off when trying to chase the game a little bit."But I actually thought there was some really good elements from our team we can hang our hat on."Wales face an Italian side which beat Scotland 22-10 in their opening game, but Whiffin added: "We're confident in every single game we go into."We've got a good plan that we are going after. "Italy are a big physical team but there's opportunities for us to move them around and be smart with our kicking game and try and preserve some space for our outside backs to get on top of them. Wales Under-20s: Scott Delnevo (Aberavon), Aidan Boshoff (Bristol Bears), Osian Roberts (Sale Sharks), Steffan Emanuel (Cardiff Rugby), Tom Bowen (Cardiff Rugby), Harri Wilde (Cardiff Rugby), Logan Franklin (Dragons RFC);Louie Trevett (Bristol Bears), Harry Thomas (Scarlets), Sam Scott (Bristol Bers), Kenzie Jenkins (Bristol Bears), Dan Gemine (Ospreys), Deian Gwynne (Gloucester), Harry Beddall (Leicester Tigers – Captain), Evan Minto (Dragons RFC)Replacements: Saul Hurley (Aberavon), Ioan Emanuel (Bath Rugby), Jac Pritchard (Scarlets), Tom Cottle (RGC), Ryan Jones (Dragons RFC), Sion Davies (Cardiff Rugby), Harri Ford (Dragons), Elijah Evans (Cardiff Rugby)
