Under 20s compete for squad places in East v West encounter
An Under 20 national selection game will take place at Aberavon on Thursday evening (7.15pm) with the East taking on the West in a bid to impress Wales Under 20 head coach Phil Davies and his coaching team.
Players from the Blues and Dragons set-ups will form East Wales, with the Scarlets and Ospreys joining forces to make up the West. The four WRU Regional Performance Managers will coach the sides, with Gethin Watts (Blues) and Kevin George (Scarlets) acting as head coach for East and West respectively, assisted by Will Thomas (Dragons) and Andrew Millward (Ospreys).
Davies hopes this WRU National Academy initiative will provide a valuable platform from which to select the Wales Under 20 squad for the forthcoming Under 20 Six Nations Championship.
He said, "This is a concept we wanted to put into place in order to give the lads a level of keen competition against their peers to use as a selection tool for the Six Nations and Junior World Championship.
"The Regional Performance Managers and Regional academy staff have been heavily involved in the process to this stage in terms of the selection and coaching of the sides. We have also watched a great deal of Principality Premiership rugby, through the new video system now in place, and by going to a number of games. Other than Tavis Knoyle, Ashley Beck and Rhys Williams who are on Regional Heineken Cup duty this week, our best available Under 20 players will be on display on Thursday. It will be very exciting to see a number of last year's Under 20 squad players such as Kristian Phillips, James King, Matthew Jarvis and Rhys Downes forming combinations with and coming up against talented youngsters from last season's Under 18 group such as Dale Ford, Tom Crandon and Dean Gunter, along with Dan Fish who has made waves for the Wanderers this season.
"It is an early opportunity to see the potential strength in depth of our squad for the forthcoming season. I want to see the standard of rugby these players are capable of, and look at a few combinations. We hope to be able to use this match, along with Premiership and Regional games to enable early identification of our squad in order to be well prepared for the international season. We will hold training sessions with an enlarged squad over the next couple of months before announcing our Six Nations squad before Christmas.
"The Under 20 programme we are putting into place will add value to the excellent work done within the Regions and provide players capable of shining at the 2011 and 2015 Rugby World Cups."
East v West
Talbot Athletic Ground
Thursday 15 October, 7.15pm
Entry £3, concessions £2, Under 16s free of charge
Ebbw Vale’s James Thomas will captain the East, with Aberavon’s James King leading the West. Both players were key to Phil Davies’ Under 20 side last season and will be looking to set a good example in front of the selectors.
Other players involved in the game who represented Wales Under 20 last season are Pontypridd and Blues academy scrum half Rhys Downes, James Loxton, Matthew Pewtner, Rhys Jenkins and Dan Watchurst who are starting for the East, with Craig Attwell and Josh Navidi on the bench and Ospreys and Neath wing Kristian Phillips, Scott Williams, Matthew Jarvis and Simon Gardiner who are starting for the West.
West head coach Kevin George said, “We’ve told our players that this is their first real opportunity to put a marker down for the season. They have played a lot of Premiership rugby but now the selectors want to see how they can express themselves against their peers.”
East head coach Gethin Watts said, “The way these teams have come together has thrown up a number of interesting head to head situations. It will be good to see the progression of some experienced players from last season, the exciting young talent from last year’s Under 18s, along with some late developers and players that are new to international age grade rugby such as Dan Fish, Toby Faletau and Dean Gunter.”
East Wales:
Dan Fish; Ryan Healey (Blues), Matthew Pewtner (Blues), Dean Gunter (Dragons), James Loxton (Blues); James Roblin (Dragons), Rhys Downes (Blues); Lewis Smout (Blues), Ieuan Davies (Blues), Dan Watchurst (Dragons), Macauley Cook (Blues), Rhydian Wilson (Dragons), James Thomas (Dragons, capt), Rhys Jenkins(Dragons), Toby Faletau (Dragons)
Replacements: Craig Attwell (Dragons), Dan Evans (Blues), Ben Lee (Blues), Jonathan Barley (Blues), Tom Crandon (Dragons), Josh Navidi (Blues), Lloyd Peart (Blues), Owen Williams (Blues), Nicky Williams (Dragons)
West Wales:
Lee Rees (Scarlets); Dale Ford (Scarlets) , Kristian Phillips (Ospreys), Scott Williams (Scarlets), Chris Lewis (Ospreys); Matthew Jarvis (Ospreys), Gareth Davies Scarlets); Rhodri Jones (Scarlets), Greg George (Scarlets), Simon Gardiner (Scarlets), Ben Davies (Ospreys), James King (Ospreys capt), Edward Siggery (Scarlets), Ellis Lloyd (Scarlets), Ben Thomas (Ospreys)
Replacements:
Rowan Jenkins (Scarlets), Will Taylor (Ospreys), Gareth Harvey (Ospreys), Luke Lewis (Scarlets), Adam Evans (Ospreys), James Davies (Scarlets), Dan Davies (Ospreys), Steve Shingler (Scarlets)
