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5 Nations Championship 2016

Wales U18’s 2016 gpfoto

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Wales U18s v Italy U18s: Jim Botham switches to blindside flanker after try-scoring debut

• 10:09, 29 MAR 2016 •

BY ANDY HOWELL Coach Geraint Lewis has rung the changes for his side’s second match of the U-18 International Series, with just three positions being unchanged

Jim Botham in action Sir Ian Botham’s grandson Jim Botham switches to blindside flanker for Wales Under-18’s clash with Italy at Ystrad Mynach tonight (kick-off 7.30pm) after making a try-scoring debut during their thrilling 31-30 win over Scotland.

The recently-turned 18-year-old had an eventful outing at openside, also being sin-binned for an off-the-ball tackle and making the vital steal that allowed Wales to hang on to the spoils.

“I loved it – Playing against Scotland was a dream come true,” said Jim Botham.

Coach Geraint Lewis has rung the changes for his side’s second match of the U-18 International Series, with just three positions being unchanged.

Lock Will Griffiths, outside-half Ben Jones and centre Ben Thomas remain with Corey Baldwin, who touched down twice against Scotland, switching to right-wing from centre.

Botham, who was born in Cardiff, switches flanks with captain Will Jones starting at openside for the second match of a double-header, Scotland facing Ireland earlier (KO 5.15pm).

“We’ve kept some key individuals in place but brought in some new faces to try some new combinations,” said former Wales back-row forward Lewis.

“The changes mean every player in the squad will have had a start and have a chance to stake a claim for the final game against England on April 6.

Wales forward Jim Botham, the grandson of England cricket legend Sir Ian Botham, and son of ex-Cardiff rugby player Liam Botham lines up for Wales U18s “Will comes in as captain but he has a lot of leadership experience in age-grade rugby. We know Italy will provide a different

type of opposition than Scotland but are confident of continuing the momentum gained in our encouraging opening performance.

“Playing different nationalities and different styles of play is what makes international rugby so special and it’s great education for the boys, not only to play different countries but to experience preparing for and playing three games in such a short space of time.

“Italy will have a physical pack of forwards but playing on the 3G at Ystrad Mynach will allow us to play some good running rugby, as we did on Friday.

“We had a number of debutants, and we’ve had a big turnover in the squad with the different eligibility date, but you can’t fault the effort and attitude of the boys and we’re looking for more of that against Italy.”

After leading 28-13 at one stage against Scotland, Wales spent much of the second half with 14 men after two yellow cards.

Scotland came back strongly and the hosts had to dig deep to hold onto a narrow lead in the end.

“It was a tense finish, and we’d been in a similar situation against England a couple of weeks ago so it was good for the boys to come out the other side and grab the victory, which I thought we fully deserved,” said Lewis.

“We put some good facets of play together, and looked dangerous with ball in hand. We were heavily penalised and had two yellow cards so we surrendered a fair bit of possession and territory so although we made hard work of it we showed good character to come through.”

Entry for the match is £5 with free admission for under-16s

Wales prop Rhys Carre goes on the charge against England

Deadly Grayson sinks Wales U18

6 April 2016, 11:08 pm :: Match Report By Graeme Gillespie A personal haul of 21 points by fly half James Grayson guided England to a 41-9 victory over Wales in the final game of the inaugural Under 18 International Series in Swansea.

Grayson pulled the strings expertly for England and no doubt

his father Paul, watching from the stand, would have appreciated the direction he gave his backline.

England possessed a potent back division with wingers Gabriel Ibitoye and Levi Davies along with full back Tom Parton full of running while inside backs Jacob Umaga and Oli Morris were constant threats to the Welsh defence.

Wales began brightly and opened the scoring through Ben Jones who landed a penalty and when Morris scored a freakish try in the 13th minute it looked like the omens were against the hosts.

Grayson chipped behind the Welsh defence and saw his kick strike the corner flag on the full and change direction at right angles for the English centre to pounce. Grayson rubbed salt into the wound with an excellent sideline conversion.

Jones added a second penalty to reduce the arrears before Morris claimed his second try in the opposite corner. Grayson added the extras with another perfect conversion but Jones offered Wales hope by banging over a third penalty to keep Wales in the hunt, trailing 17-9 at the break.

England seized control virtually from the re-start when Grayson dived over for a converted try. Ibitoye showed devastating pace and power to cruise over but the try of the night went to replacement Ben White who finished off a sweeping move that involved several pairs of hands before White cantered over.

Wales battled bravely until the bitter end but couldn’t find a way through the teak tough England defence. Despite the heavy defeat, Wales head coach Geraint Lewis was full of praise for his young side.

“The final result is a disappointing way to finish the tournament but it doesn’t take away a lot of the good things the boys have done throughout the series. We came up against a very good England side - things didn’t really go our way from the start,” he lamented.

“I didn’t think there was much in it at halftime - they had a fortuitous try and scored right on the stroke of halftime - but they are a very difficult team to chase as they have so many dangerous runners. Once you start chasing it gets a bit looser and it plays into their hands - that’s life, we’ll learn from it and move on.

“In the end it was like hitting your head against a brick wall

where we lost a bit of composure and shape. The boys will take a lot out of this and hopefully it will inspire them to keep working hard for their future development,” added Lewis.

Ryan Conbeer on the attack for Wales U18 REPORT: Wales U18 come back to beat Italy 29 March 2016, 11:00 pm :: Match Report By Liz Jones Wales Under 18 maintained their winning start to the inaugural U18 International Series with a 24-9 win over Italy at Ystrad Mynach.

Italy more than made a game of it for the first half before Wales let loose, tries from Rhys Carre, Will Jones and Ben Jones helping their side to build on Friday’s opening day, 31-30 victory over Scotland, in Swansea.

Wales found the going tough in the first half, much as the Under 20s had in their Six Nations Gram Slam game against the Azzurri in Colwyn Bay earlier this month. They were combative all around the park and their scrum more than held its own.

the closing moments to make sure Wales go into their final game of the Series, against England at St Helens on April 6 (7.30pm), with an unblemished record.

Wales head coach Geraint Lewis said, “It’s good to get another win. A lot of the boys got their first taste of international rugby this evening, and the Italians never make it easy for you, they’re a very physical and enthusiastic side. The first half conditions were difficult with the rain and win, the Italians had a lot of possession and territory but the boys showed lots of maturity to come through in the second half, we can take a lot going forward from that.”

With a slightly older group of boys having lost 26-27 to England before the start of the Series, this group of players will be looking to put that right next Wednesday evening.

“England is going to be very difficult”, added Lewis. “They haven’t lost many boys from the side we faced a few weeks ago so we’re under no illusions about the size of the task. We know we need to get better but we can take a lot out of the first two games, we know we can improve further from here.

“It’s great to have some support from your friends, family and neutral support too, hopefully we’ll get a good crowd at St Helens next Wednesday evening to end the Series.”

Antonio Rizzi kicked two penalties for the Italians with his second coming after Callum Carson had been yellow carded.

Still, with passion and spirit aplenty and the a vocal crowd at the Ystrad Mynach Centre for Sporting Excellence behind them, Wales, trailing 6-0 at the break, came up trumps in a much improved second half.

First, replacement prop Carre, who led the side against Scotland on Good Friday, made his way to the line and over, for Ben Jones to convert and Jones was on hand to add the extras when tonight’s captain Will Jones was driven over the whitewash to put Wales further in front.

Italy pegged back the lead with a third penalty of the night, but Wales had the final say with a solo try from Ben Jones, kicking through loose ball inside his own half and chasing all the way to the line. The score was improved by centre Ben Thomas in

Wales Under-18s kick off International Series with victory 25 March 2016, 06:24 pm :: Match Report By WRU Wales kicked off their U18 International Series campaign with a thrilling 31-30 victory over their Scottish counterparts in Swansea.

There were four tries in all for Geraint Lewis’ men as Corey Baldwin scored a brace with flanker Jim Botham and wing Joe Goodchild also crossing.

Fly-half Ben Jones had an impressive day with the boot, kicking four conversions and a penalty to ensure Scottish tries for Cameron Hutchison, Rory McMichael and Ben Eynon, plus 15

points from Ben Appleson.

Wales made an ideal start with Harri Dobbs making an immediate impression on debut by bursting onto a flat pass to puncture the Scottish defence. The ball was shifted right and full-back Leon Randell put centre Baldwin over in the corner, with Jones converting.

The visitors responded well with their own prop Ross Dunbar racing through to force a penalty which Appleson kicked, and the wing soon trimmed the deficit to just one point with his second three-pointer a few minutes later.

After a testing spell, Wales hit back in fine style with their second try. A powerful rolling maul proved too much for the Scottish forwards to handle and Botham was the man to dot down with Jones adding the extras.

It was proving an entertaining contest for the St Helens crowd and there was soon another score to appreciate as Scotland centre Hutchison finished well after running an intelligent line to ride the covering tackle and score.

Appleson converted to put Scotland back within a point but Wales took a big stride towards victory with two tries in four minutes in the lead-up to half-time, Scarlets centre Baldwin finished a lovely wrap-around moved in midfield for the first, with his midfield partner Ben Thomas breaking two tackles to send Dragons three-quarter Goodchild over out wide for the second.

Jones’ unerring boot kicked both conversions and Wales led by 15 points at the interval.

However, Scotland started the second-half strongly and capitalised when Botham was sin-binned for an off the ball tackle.

Appleson kicked the resulting penalty and wing McMichael added a try as he benefited from good work by prop Euan McLaren.

Wales replied with a Jones penalty but, when the fly-half became the second home player to see yellow, Scotland set up a tense finish thanks to Eynon’s try and Appleson’s conversion.

But Wales held their nerve to claim the win and set-up them up for their next fixture against Italy at Ystrad Mynach on Tuesday.

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Wales U18’s Leon Randell (Scarlets/ Coleg Sir Gar); Joe Goodchild (Dragons/ Coleg Gwent/ Garndiffaith), Corey Baldwin (Scarlets/ Llandovery Coll), Ben Thomas (Blues/ Cardiff & Vale Coll, St Peters), Ryan Conbeer (Scarlets/ Coleg Sir Gar); Ben Jones (Blues/ Coleg y Cymoedd/ Treharris), Dane Blacker (Blues/Cymoedd / Pontypridd); Rhys Carre (capt, Blues/Cowbridge Comp) Jordan Liney (Ospreys/ Hartbury Coll/ Dunvant), Harri Dobbs (Blues/ Cowbridge/ St Peters ), Rhys Davies (Bath/ Millfield/ Exiles), Will Griffiths (Ospreys/ Gowerton Comp/ Gowerton), Lloyd Pike (Scarlets/ Sir Gar/ Llanelli Wanderers), Jim Botham (Sedbergh School/ Exiles). Morgan Morris (Hartpury/ Exiles) Iestyn Harris (Blues/ Ysgol y Cymer/ Wattstown), Josh Reynolds (Dragons/ Newport High/ NHSOB), Christian Coleman (Dragons/ Newport High/ Gardiffaith), Ben Sier (Blues/ Cymoedd/ Merthyr), Will Jones (Ospreys/ Gower Coll/ Penclawdd), Charlie Davies (Ospreys/ Gowerton/ Gowerton), Connor Tantum (Ospreys/ Porthcawl/ Kenfig Hill), Callum Carson (Ospreys/ Gower Coll/ Gowerton), Gethin Gibby (Scarlets/ Sir Gar)

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