Wales’ youngsters have set themselves up for another crack at England.
A bonus-point win over Spain at the World Rugby U20 Championships was just enough to send them into the battle for fifth place in Italy – starting with a clash with last year’s champions, England.
It will be the third time this year the auld enemies have locked horns.
Harry Beddall’s side magnificently denied England a Grand Slam with their 23-13 Six Nations triumph in Cardiff in March.
Then, the two teams met again in an uncapped friendly in Pontypool Park in a warm-up for this tournament.
This time England ran out 47-14 winners.
“If you go back to the Six Nations there will be a score for them to settle. We have played them in a friendly since then, but both sides will be pretty different on Monday from when we met in March in Cardiff,” said Wales U20 head coach Richard Whiffin.
“Any England v Wales game is one our boys will be incredibly up for and it is a game we are all excited about. They are buzzing to get another crack at them.
“We made it hard for ourselves against the Spaniards. They stuck in it well, made it quite niggly, although we always knew it was going to be as tough a game as it was.
“We challenged the boys around their work rate off the ball at half time when we were trailing.
“We felt we were a little bit one-paced, our collisions on both sides of the ball were down and we were losing races to the breakdown.
“We asked them to up their intensity around that area and they did that. I’m pleased we got the result at the end of it.
“We knew they wouldn’t break early and we had to keep our composure. Spain have been improving every year.
“We knew it would be tight for 60 minutes. It took us 70 minutes to get the bonus point against them last year and it was 68 this time.”
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That win took Wales to six points and third place in the pool, but there was still a long wait before discovering whether or not they had done enough to play in the 5th-8th Place Play-Off.
The two teams above them in the pool, France and Argentina, both made it through to top tier play-off to challenge for the overall title, while New Zealand and South Africa joined them.
Whiffin and the rest of his coaching team were left waiting to discover if they had done enough to qualify for the middle tier as the evening games evolved.
New Zealand did them a favour by beating Ireland by 47-point margin and Italy pushed Georgia out of the reckoning by snatching a 19-19 draw with an 85th minute try to level the scores.
READ MORE: Dominant Second-Half Sees France U20s Clinch Hard-Fought Victory Against Wales U20s In Italy
WORLD RUGBY U20 CHAMPIONSHIP RANKINGS
1 South Africa 15 (+125)
2 France 15 (+78)
3 New Zealand 14 (+75)
4 Argentina 11 (–16)
5 England 10 (+30)
6 Australia 7 (–49)
7 Italy 6 (–7)
8 Wales 6 (–11)
9 Ireland 6 (–42)
10 Georgia 4 (–42)
11 Spain 2 (–51)
12 Scotland 1 (–106)
“When you look at it, there are two teams in the top tier that we pushed all the way. If we had beaten Argentina in our opening game then we might have made it instead of them,” added Whiffin.
“This tournament is all about picking up bonus points in your pool games. We didn’t get one against France, which we deserved, and we could and should have beaten Argentina, who managed to get themselves into the top four.”
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England needed a last gasp penalty to beat Australia 36-33, but it still wasn’t enough to carry them into the Championship play-off section to enable them to try to defend their title.
It will be the fifth time they have faced Wales at the tournament and Beddall’s boys will be seeking to make history by winning for the first time
WALES V ENGLAND AT WORLD RUGBY U20 CHAMPIONSHIPS
2013: Wales 15–23 England (Stade de la Rabine, Vannes - FINAL)
2015: England 30–16 Wales (Stadio San Michele, Calvisano - POOL)
2017: England Wales 34–22 Wales (Avchala Stadium, Tbilisi - POOL)
2019: Wales 26–45 England (Racecourse Stadium, Rosario - 5th PLACE PLAY OFF)
PLAY OFF MATCHES
Monday 14 July
9th Place Semi Final (19): Georgia v Spain (14:30 - Payanini Center, Verona)
9th Place Semi Final (20): Ireland v Scotland (17:00 - Payanini Center, Verona)
5th Place Semi Final (21): England v Wales (14:30 - Stadio Luigi Zaffanella, Viadana)
5th Place Semi Final (22): Italy v Australia (19:30 - Payanini Center, Verona)
Championship Semi Final (23): France v New Zealand (17:00 - Stadio Luigi Zaffanella, Viadana)
Championship Semi Final (24): South Africa v Argentina (19:30 - Stadio Luigi Zaffanella, Viadana)
Saturday 19 July
11th Place Play-Off: Loser Match 19 v Loser Match 20 (14:30 - Stadio San Michele, Calvisano)
7th Place Play-Off: Loser Match 21 v Loser Match (14:30 - Stadio Mario Battaglini, Rovigo)
3rd Place Play-Off: Loser Match 23 v Loser Match 24 (17:00 - Stadio San Michele, Calvisano)
5th Place Play-Off: Winner Match 21 v Winner Match 22 (17:00 - Stadio Mario Battaglini, Rovigo)
9th Place Play-Off: Winner Match 19 v Winner Match 20 (19:30 - Stadio San Michele, Calvisano)
Final: Winner Match 23 v Winner Match 24 (19:30 - Stadio Mario Battaglini, Rovigo)
