Pope and Glory for Jack

He missed out on last year’s World Rugby U20 Championship, making this one all the more important to him. Getting his first crack at the whip against Japan on Thursday was less a relief than a chance to get stuck in after watching Wales’ first two pool games against Australia and New Zealand.
 
Though he loved being out there on the field at Perpignan’s Stade Aimé Giral, he allows that there were some frustrations in Wales’ one-point win. “It was a fast game, but a couple of things didn’t quite go our way, which had a knock-on effect. Japan are a clever team, so from my perspective as a lineout operator, we had to come up with ideas to counter their strategies.”
 
After finishing second in their group, Wales are now faced with the exciting (and rare) prospect of taking on Argentina in Narbonne this Tuesday. They may even find inspiration in the manner of their senior counterparts’ victory in San Juan yesterday.
 
“As a group, we were really satisfied when we drew Argentina,” Pope says, “because they’re the type of team you want to play, to see how good you are. We want to push on against them and take things from there.”
 
The unity in the U20 team is there for all to see, according to Pope. ‘Everybody’s really enjoying being together in this environment. There are no cliques, everyone gets along well. It’s what you need in a team.”
 
Pencoed and proud – like his Wales U20 captain and roommate Tommy Reffell – Pope plies his trade with the neighbouring Bridgend Ravens. “Playing there week in, week out helps a lot with my development as a player,” he says. “It’s given me the chance to prove myself in the Principality Premiership, which is a really tough league.”
 
The Brewery Field outfit has also helped nurture some of this year’s new crop of U20 players, including Dewi Cross, Harri Morgan and Cai Evans. Unlike those players, Pope is unattached to a region – an out-and-out Raven, if you will.
 
He had captained Bridgend College in his second year there, and his mature performances brought him back into the Wales age grade pathway with the U20s (having previously had a spell with the U16s). The manner of celebrating his first cap in Milan during last year’s U20 Six Nations has had unintended consequences for Pope, one of the most popular members of the squad.
 
“We were heading back to the team hotel on the bus, and I got called up to sing my first-cap song,” he recalls, following Wales’ 27-5 win. “I was sat next to our fullback, Phil Jones, and I told him I didn’t know what to sing.
 
“He said, ‘Well, what songs do you know?’ I replied, ‘The Court of King Caractacus’. He’d never heard of it, unsurprisingly, but he told me to go up and sing it. I’m not sure how I knew the song, it was just one of those things, and I just rattled it off. Ever since then it’s stuck, and every time there’s a singsong I’m up there…”
 
Wales U20 v Argentina U20 kicks off this Tuesday, 13:00 BST, at the Stade D’Honneur Du Parc Des Sports Et De L’Amitie, Narbonne. Watch it live across S4C’s terrestrial and digital channels.