Jenkins on bench for Welsh U-20s

By Mark Stevens
22/2/23

Exeter Chiefs youngster Iwan Jenkins has been named on the bench for Wales Under-20s ahead of their Six Nations Championship clash with England at Stadium CSM on Friday (7:45pm).

Jenkins - who was pivotal in helping the Chiefs advance into next month's Premiership Rugby Cup Final against London Irish - has yet to feature for his country in this season's competition.

He will, however, come up against Chiefs team-mate Greg Fisilau, who has been named at No.8 for the visitors, who like the Welsh have faced both Scotland and Italy in their opening two fixtures.

Welsh head coach Byron Hayward has made one change to his backline from that which beat Scotland last time out. Into the side comes Ospreys winger Harri Houston, who replaces Llien Morgan.

In the pack, there are two new faces and two positional changes with Harlequins' Jonny Green returning in the second-row with captain Ryan Woodman reverting to blindside flanker. Scarlets flanker Luca Giannini replaces the injured Morgan Morse, while Cardiff's Mackenize moves to No.8 with Huw Davies sidelined with a knee injury.

“England will come with a big driving game against us,” predicted Hayward. “That is one area we have had to work on and put a bit of work into this week because our defence of driving mauls needs to be better than what it has been. England, along with Italy and France, will be the same, coming at us with a driving mentality so we need to make sure we stop that legally at source.

“I think if we can do that and get parity possession-wise I’m confident we can beat England. I’ve been impressed with the way the boys have trained and applied themselves and played so far. We’ve showed some real good glimpses of what we are capable of and keeping 15 players on the field will be our chief focus for 80 minutes.

“If you look at our record over the two games, we have conceded 32 penalties and five yellow cards. So we need to get our house in order in certain areas and we have addressed those.”

Despite the narrow defeat to Scotland last time out, Hayward praised the effort his side put in.

“I was really proud of the boys,” he said. “Don’t get me wrong, we made a lot of errors against Scotland. In terms of effort, commitment and pride they showed for the jersey, to keep them out just before halftime with 13 men was excellent work.

“We had a chat at halftime about a few tactical things and the execution 10 minutes after halftime was of the highest standard. They delivered exactly what we had spoken about. We scored two tries and ended up getting ahead in the second half. The game was there to be won but we just didn’t take our chance at the end.”

WALES UNDER-20s SIDE TO FACE ENGLAND UNDER-20s

15 Cameron Winnett (Cardiff Rugby)
14 Harri Houston (Ospreys)
13 Louie Hennessey (Bath Rugby)
12 Harri Ackerman (Dragons)
11 Oli Andrew (Dragons)
10 Dan Edwards (Ospreys)
9 Archie Hughes (Scarlets)
1 Dylan Kelleher-Griffiths (Dragons)
2 Sam Scarfe (Dragons)
3 Ellis Fackrell (Ospreys)
4 Liam Edwards (Ospreys)
5 Jonny Green (Harlequins)
6 Ryan Woodman (Dragons, capt)
7 Luca Giannini (Scarlets)
8 Mackenzie Martin (Cardiff Rugby)

16 Lewis Morgan (Scarlets)
17 Josh Morse (Scarlets)
18 Tomas Pritchard (Scarlets)
19 Owain Evans (RGC)
20 Lucas De La Rua (Cardiff Rugby)
21 Harri Williams (Scarlets)
22 Iwan Jenkins (Exeter Chiefs)
23 Bryn Bradley (Harlequins)