As four of the best U20 international teams descend on Gwent for the inaugural Junior World Championship, top seeds New Zealand spent their first day at one of Wales’ top visitor attractions.
No.1 seeds New Zealand arrived in Wales last Sunday, and spent their first full day in the principality visiting one of Wales's cultural visitor attractions, Big Pit in Blaenavon.
New Zealand U20 captain Daniel Kirkpatrick and his team experienced what life was like at the coal face by travelling 300 feet underground at Big Pit, one of Britain's leading mining museums.
The best 16 Under 20 international teams competing in this month's IRB Junior World Championship stepped up their tournament preparation last weekend.
Pool B's top seed, South Africa settled into their Wrexham base on Friday and trained hard all weekend at Wrexham RFC, while Pool C top seed Australia arrived in Newport yesterday evening after their flight was delayed by 24 hours.
Wales, top seed in Pool D, met up at their Swansea hotel yesterday morning before holding their first training session at their training base, Swansea RFC.
Elsewhere, Japan, hosts of next year's Junior World Championship, played in a training match against Pencoed College on Saturday, while the North Wales U20 side provided opposition for USA U20s at Ruthin on Sunday in a round-robin series of practice matches along with East Midlands U20s.
Tomorrow sees all 16 participating teams holding an open training session for local schools taking part in the adopt-a-nation programme. The school children will get a chance to quiz the international players about their culture and heritage – and get to watch them in action at one of their Pool matches.
For full tournament schedule and preview material, go to www.irb.com/jwc
For up to date news on Wales U20 in the tournament, go to www.wru.co.uk/jwc
