By David Parsons
The Wales U20 squad arrived home from their South African trip a frustrated group after falling to a 47-31 defeat to host nation South Africa at the World Junior Rugby Championship.
It meant Ryan Woodman’s side ended eight overall with just one win, against Spain, from their five matches. It was a drop of two places on their 2023 finish, but performances and results in all games were closer than before.
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They were beaten 41-34 by New Zealand in their opening game, scoring five tries, went down 29-11 to reigning champions France, notched five tries in a36-29 defeat against the Junior Wallabies and notched a further five tries against the Junior Springboks.
“We were all a bit frustrated and disappointed with the result in the final game – it was a tale of our season really,” said head coach Richard Whiffin.
“We conceded a lot of penalties, and we gave up too many soft tries. It gave us a bit too much to do and we were ultimately hanging on.
“This team is outstanding around their heart and spirit and desire to defend. We just have to be more accurate.
“We can’t fault the boys’ efforts, but it was a bit frustrating to see how easy we were to score against today. We are a threat with the ball, but we simply have to be better without it.
“We were dangerous when we got into the right areas of the field, but then our errors gave them plenty of opportunities in our 22.
“We could have beaten New Zealand in game one, it was our best result against France in six or seven years and it was a one-score defeat to Australia. We know we aren’t far away, but this group have to start learning how to win tight games.”
While players like Woodman, fellow back row man Lucas de la Rua, lock Johnny Green and centre Louie Hennessey now pass into the senior game at their clubs, Whiffin and his coaching team will get out to the new Super Rygbi Cymru clubs to debrief the performances by this year’s crop of players and start planning for next year.
“This tournament will have been an awesome experience for those players who can play again next year. We showed our attacking ability in every game, won most second halves, but didn’t get off to the kind of starts we wanted,” said Whiffin.
“Ryan and Johnny have both been colossal for us and put their bodies on the line. Their careers take a slight change now and we will be keeping eyes on them to see how quickly they push forward into the senior squad.”
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