HEAD coach Danny Wilson believes Wales under-20s can bounce back to winning ways when they face Italy in their fourth Six Nations match of the 2012 championship at Parc Eirias, Colwyn Bay tonight
Caernarfon’s Iolo Evans returns to a Welsh team showing a number of changes following a disappointing loss last time out.
An impressive 28-15 victory over Scotland in their last home match at the North Wales venue, in front of a capacity crowd of 5,832, was sandwiched between the narrow 11-6 defeat away to Ireland in the opening round and a 40-9 reverse at the hands of England.
But Wilson is confident the young side can learn from that experience and bounce back with a good performance.
He said: “The boys were buzzing after coming out and playing in front of such an enthusiastic home crowd last time around here at Eirias. The support definitely had an effect on their game and experiencing that kind of atmosphere is all part of their progression as young rugby players.
“We knew this year was going to be tough. We had a difficult start away to Ireland and although we made progress against Scotland we feel we took a step backwards against England so we are all eager to show what we can do against Italy.
“I couldn’t fault the players efforts against a very strong England team. However, we were disappointed with the contact area and our ball retention, too many soft turnovers caused us huge periods of defence and eventually a couple of defensive errors were made under fatigue that cost us in the latter stages of the game.”
Wilson added: “We’ve made some exciting changes to the side, including 17-year-old Jack Dixon, who played for the Dragons against Munster on Friday, starting in the centre with Nathan Edwards, who returns after injury.
“The changes are based on player performance in the premiership and at training and these players have earned the opportunity with our long-term aim of viewing different combinations for World Cup selection.
“We have to look beyond these games as it’s our chance to build and identify for the world cup the players involved must see this as a key chance to impress and stake a claim for the Junior World Championship squad.
“We went away from our game plan against England and we must bounce back with a good performance on Friday. We’ve had some good training sessions since the trip to The Stoop and we want to put that into practice on the park.”
The side is without captain Kirby Myhill who has been called back to the Scarlets for their weekend fixture against Northampton, after the region lost two hookers to the senior Wales side that play Italy on Saturday.
The captaincy has been handed to flanker Ellis Jenkins, who has experience in leadership after captaining Wales U18s last year.
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