As a vital development platform for the women’s and men’s game, the festivals offer young players, coaches and match officials an important opportunity to gain international rugby experience, share knowledge across the group of teams, and be part of a competitive high-performance environment.
The U18 Festivals also offer a critical platform to enter or continue the journey on the rugby pathway, which leads up to the U20 level and paves the way to follow in the footsteps of those lighting up the Six Nations stage at the elite senior level.
The Men’s Festival will this year feature Georgia and Spain, as part of the ongoing commitment to use the festival platform to support emerging nations and foster development across the game.
Beyond the on-pitch action, the festivals are capturing the attention of fans, with 2,000 new subscribers to the Six Nations U20 YouTube channel that streamed the festivals last year and generated nearly 3 million impressions.
The channel will offer fans access to the festivals this year, as well as dedicated coverage and content across Six Nations Rugby social media channels.
Wales U18 girls head coach Siwan Lillicrap, said: “We are really excited to be heading to Wellington College for the fourth U18 Girls’ Six Nations Festival. I have seen tremendous growth and development in our young players over the past 12 months, and we are eager to put that progress to the test in April.”
Her Wales U18 boys counterpart Richie Pugh, added: “On the back of an impressive display against Scotland last weekend, we’re now looking forward to providing this group the next step in their progression. The competition offers the boys plenty of opportunity to express themselves and we’re eager to see them test themselves against the best players in their age group.”
Under-18 Women’s Festival Fixtures
Each team will play 2 x 35-minute matches on MD1 and MD2, followed by 1 x 70-minute match on MD3.
Matchday 1 (Friday 11th April) (35min matches)
KO 11:00 WALES V FRANCE
KO 12:00 SCOTLAND V WALES
KO 13:00 France v Scotland
KO 15:00 Italy v Scotland
KO 16:00 Ireland v Italy
KO 17:00 England v Ireland
Matchday 2 (Tuesday 15th April) (35min matches)
KO 11:00 WALES V ENGLAND
KO 12:00 England v Scotland
KO 13:00 ITALY V WALES
KO 15:00 Scotland v Ireland
KO 16:00 Italy v France
KO 17:00 France v Ireland
Matchday 3 (Saturday 19th April) (70min matches)
KO 12:00 IRELAND V WALES
KO 14:15 England v France
KO 16:30 Italy v Scotland
*All kick-off times are in local time (UK BST)
Under-18 Men’s Festival Fixtures
Each team will play 1 x 70-minute match on each match day, with four matches taking place each day.
Matchday 1 (Thursday 10th April) (70 min matches)
KO 11:00 Georgia v Italy
KO 13:15 England v Scotland
KO 16:15 France v Spain
KO 18:30 WALES V IRELAND
Matchday 2 (Monday 14th April) (70 min matches)
KO 11:00 Spain v England
KO 13:15 Italy v France
KO 16:15 Ireland v Scotland
KO 18:30 GEORGIA V WALES
Matchday 3 (Friday 18th April) (70min matches)
KO 11:00 WALES V ITALY
KO 13:15 Ireland v Georgia
KO 16:15 Scotland v Spain
KO 18:30 France v England
*All kick-off times are in local time (French)
