UNDER 21S READY FOR ALL BLACKS
Coach Chris Davey has declared: “We have got to get something out of the game.”
The 2005 Grand Slam champions, who then play Scotland and Argentina in the Pool stage, will have threequarters Richard Fussell and Dafydd Lockyer and lock Dominic Day in the starting line-up winning their first caps with fellow uncapped players Gerwyn Price and David Flanagan on the bench against the junior All Blacks.
“We have picked the strongest team available to us,” said Davey. “Six of our forwards performed consistently well for us in the Six Nations with Dominic earning his first cap in the second row.
“He has trained very well with us recently while Rhys James at hooker was part of our squad throughout the Six Nations so there should be no problems with them stepping up to the plate.
“Aled Thomas comes in at No. 10 as Matthew Jones is involved with the senior side and we have a lot of confidence in Aled as he was also with us for most of the Six Nations.
“Dafydd teams up with Andrew Bishop in the centre – Dafydd has a big physical presence and Andrew will provide a lot of experience – while Aled Brew and Ricky Williams both played throughout the Six Nations campaign. James Ireland has a lot of experience while Richard will earn his first cap on the wing.
“New Zealand have won this tournament for the past two years so they are clearly tournament favourites to make it three in a row. We havent had a chance to see any of their games this year so we are just going to have to concentrate on our performance and aim to get something out of the match.
“However, we do know that they have quite a bit of Super 12 experience within their squad and that they are a very physical side.
“You obviously get points for winning but also for scoring four or more tries and coming within seven points if you lose. We think we need to get 11 points to go through to the last four so we have to get something from this game.
“Its great to play teams with difference styles of rugby that we are not used to and by playing New Zealand and Argentina amongst our games, we will certainly be doing that which is great for the boys development.”
WALES U21:
Ricky Williams (Newport)
Aled Brew (Neath/Ospreys)
Andrew Bishop (Neath/Ospreys)
Dafydd Lockyer (Pontypridd)
Richard Fussell (Dragons)
Aled Thomas (Dragons)
James Ireland (Dragons)
Scott Roberts (Blues)
Rhys James (Newport)
Cai Griffiths (Neath/Ospreys)
Alun Wyn Jones (Swansea/Ospreys)
Dominic Day (Llanelli)
Chris Davies (Dragons)
James Merriman (Hartpury College/Gloucester –Â Captain)
Jonathan Mills (Llanelli/Scarlets)
Replacements:
Phillip Osborne (Newport)
Gerwyn Price (Neath)
Tom Smith (Neath)
Rhys Shellard (Pontypridd)
Wayne Evans (Blues)
David Flanagan (Pontypridd)
Steve Ireland (Newport)
