Both sides were forced into late changes as Fitzgerald withdrew with a neck injury, while Wales had to bring lock Adam Brown on for Bradley Davies who turned an ankle in training last Monday.
Scarlets fly half Rhys Priestland opened Wales’s U20 account when he kicked a penalty after the Irish made a hash of securing possession from the kick-off. From a scrum in the shadows of his own posts, Leinster No.8 Sean O’Brien showed bags of confidence by picking up at the base of the scrum and fuelling an Irish break out deep in their own territory, but Wales moved up a gear with two quick tries as hooker Ken Owens was shunted over by his supporting forwards and minutes later.
Wales No.8 Lewis Evans took a quick tap and fed full-back Martyn Thomas who wriggled out of a tackle to touch down out wide. Priestland landed the conversion to make it 15-0 with barely twenty minutes played.
Ireland finished the first half strongly as full back Jones touched down with Keatley making amends for his earlier miss with the conversion. Ireland finished the half full of fire and trailed by just 15-7 at half-time as they shut out Wales in the second half.
Wales’s defence which had looked so strong was found wanting again as the ball was spun wide and Jones showed some great footwork to cross for his second try. Keatley added the conversion to close the gap to just 15-14.
Ireland kept the pressure on Wales and Keatley stepped deep into the pocket and dropped a superb long-range drop goal to nose the Irish into the lead for the first time at 17-15 with ten minutes remaining.
