The 23-13 triumph over unbeaten England at the Arms Park made it three wins in the campaign, the first time Wales has managed that at this level since 2017 and denied the visitors a fifth Grand Slam and back-to-back titles.
England came to Cardiff unbeaten in their last nine games in the U20 Six Nations and having averaged 5.8 tries and a winning margin of 27 points in their last four games against Wales. They scored first, were level at 13-13 at the break and didn’t score a point in the second half.
It was the first time Wales had beaten England at this level since Jac Morgan and Sam Costelow inspired the ‘Class of 2020’ to a 23-22 win at Kingsholm. The last home win against them was in Colwyn Bay in 2019.
No wonder Whiffin was delighted that his young team were able to step up and not only match the physicality of the giant English side but also force them into confusion and submission with another heroic defensive effort.
Another 188 tackles made it 818 for the campaign, with inspirational skipper Harry Beddall topping the century with another massive haul of 23.
“This is a huge moment for the boys. Beating Ireland and England at home, the winners of the tournament in the previous three years, shows we are trending in the right direction,” said Whiffin.
“We wanted a relentless, 80-minute effort and the players delivered that. I’m immensely proud of all of them but now we’ve to go and be even better at the World Cup.
“We were confident going into the game and we knew they would bring their power game. They got on top in the scrum at the start, but we sorted that out.
“They had had it their own way in the previous four games, but when they started to lose a couple of battles, they began to doubt themselves. We now know we can live with powerful teams and that we have some ‘X-Factor’ ability to hurt teams.
“We were defending really well and putting in double shots, but we got caught at the breakdown in the first half. We needed to be smarter, and we were on top in the second half.”
A try from Steff Emanuel, created by a neat dink over the top of the English threequarter line by the superb Harri Wilde, brought Wales level before the break and then Harry Rees-Weldon was set free on the right to race 20 metres to score a spectacular try in the corner.
Wilde’s touchline conversion and penalty then pushed Wales into a 10 point, two score lead and England crumbled. They picked up two yellow cards in the final 10 minutes to finish with 13 men, no second half points and no trophies.
“To keep a side like England to zero points in the second half was tremendous and proves we were on it for the full 80 minutes. This side has now set a marker for itself,” added Whiffin.
“Our game management was the best it has been in the tournament and Harri Wilde had his best game of the season. And I’m so pleased for Harry Rees-Weldon, who also had his best game of the tournament.
“He works so hard on his game and had been disappointed he hadn’t had as many touches as he’d wanted in the earlier games. When he got his shot he took it with a superb score in the corner.
“And a huge shout out to the crowd as well. It was the biggest for a Wales U20 game since 2013 and they certainly brought us home.”
