Harri Wilde will pick up his 20th Wales U20 cap in Italy on Wednesday and is hoping to mastermind a big enough win against Spain to carry his side through to the 5th to 8th Place Play-Off at the World Rugby U20 Championship.
Back-to-back defeats to Argentina and France have forced Wilde and his teammates to lower their expectations at what is his third global U20 tournament.
But with three games to go the target is to end on a high with three wins.
That would certainly be an improvement on last year’s low of eighth and would be the highest placed finish for Wales since 2013.
“We came to Italy to try to win the tournament. We are disappointed in the first two results, especially given we were so far ahead in both in the first half,” said Wilde.
“But we’ve still got a chance to do better than I did in my first two tournaments by winning the last three games and trying to finish fifth.
“We just have to look ahead to the next task.
“We are pretty disappointed because we didn’t come here to be second best. Now we’ve got to draw a line in the sand and put the two games behind us and get ready for Spain.
“They came close against Argentina (33-30) and it is going to be their World Cup final. They will be passionate and we need to match that.
“They are in the same boat as us with two losses and they will be looking to come away with a win. They’ve got some talented players, some who play for Toulouse, and we aren’t going to take them lightly.”
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The two teams met for the first time last year when a 31-10 triumph provided Wales U20 with their only win in South Africa.
The challenge for Wales this time round is to pick up the full five points to ensure they play in the second tier of the knock-out phase.
Never before have they been placed in the 9th-12th Place Play-Off section, when the bottom four sides have had to battle to avoid relegation.
The Spaniards are currently one point ahead of Wales after picking up two bonus points in their defeat to Los Pumitas.
“The heat has been a huge factor, although it is the same for both teams. It has made it pretty difficult and in the final 20 minutes you can see from the boys facial expressions they are struggling,” added Wilde.
“With the heat, you can make errors you wouldn’t normally make at key moments. We just need to get used to it.
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We are pretty tight as a group and we know we’ve got a job to do on Wednesday. We need to secure five points.
“When we were on it against France we were very good and we know it’s about staying composed in the final 20. If we can do that then I think we can beat any team.
“We’ve got a lightening back three and we’ve pretty good connections and chemistry in the backs. When it clicks, it clicks and hopefully we can have more of that against Spain.”
Wales Under-20s: Lewis Edwards; Elijah Evans, Osian Darwin-Lewis, Elis Price, Aidan Boshoff; Harri Wilde, Ellis Lewis; Ioan Emanuel, Evan Wood, Jac Pritchard, Luke Evans, Nick Thomas, Deian Gwynne, Caio James, Harry Beddall (capt).
Replacements: Jake Bowen, Owain James, Sam Scott, Dan Gemine, Evan Minto, Sion Davies, Harri Ford, Jack Woods.
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