The Blues centre features among the 10 changes, two of them positional, made from the side who beat Scotland at the weekend.
“We have to beat Romania – and do it with a try bonus point – to have any hope of qualifying for the semi-finals,” said Head Coach Justin Burnell. “But while that is the bottom line as far as we can influence matters, we also need a couple of other results to go our way, like South Africa beating England and Argentina seeing off France.”
The 2006 Grand Slam champions lost to New Zealand in their tournament opener but then beat Scotland 35-5 to keep their last four qualifying hopes alive.
“When we sat down and set our goals last July this was our final target, to reach the last four of the IRB U19 World Championship,” said Burnell. “We have already achieved our other goals, such as beating Australia and winning the Grand Slam, and now it all comes down to this match against Romania.
“They have been beaten by Australia and Japan but we will be giving them the respect they deserve and it is fair to say we did not come all this way to be in the fifth place play-off and that qualifying for the semi-finals has always been our aim.
“Luke demonstrated what a fine propsect he is when he performed so well in our U19 regional team’s win against the Wallabies in the Autumn but winning his cap on Thursday has probably come earlier than expected.”
In the changes from the team who started against the Scots, called up are Martyn Thomas, Ford, James Lewis and Robert Lewis in the back division along with forwards Marc Breeze, Lou Reed, Matthew Larsen and Daniel Franks. Jimmy Norris and Rhys Priestland are involved in positional changes behind the pack while Lewis Evans (dead leg) could not be considered for the match.
Wales U19: Martyn Thomas (Scarlets); Jimmy Norris (Dragons), Gareth Maule (Dragons), Luke Ford (Blues), James Lewis (Dragons); Rhys Priestland (Scarlets), Robert Lewis (Dragons); Hugh Gustafson (Scarlets), Marc Breeze (Ospreys), Jamie Corsi (Dragons), Bradley Davies (Blues, captain), Lou Reed (Scarlets), Matthew Larsen (Blues), Daniel Franks (Blues), Sam Kiley (Ospreys)
Replacements: Keiron Jenkins (Blues), Nicholas Eaves (Blues), James Down (Blues), Ken Owens (Scarlets), Ashley Smith (Dragons), Rhys Jones (Sale / Exiles), Darren Allinson (Scarlets), Josh Turnbull (Scarlets), Marc Jones (Exiles), Alec Jenkins (Scarlets)
