After the East versus West match at St. Helens on Wednesday night, national selectors have now confirmed a 28-strong squad to represent Wales at Under 18 level.
The squad was selected after intense training camps, weeks of analysis and monitoring which culminated in the trial match.
WRU Under 18 Team Manager, Gethin Watts, said: “The trial match was a great exercise and was an opportunity for us to see all players once again in a game situation and allowed us to make some final assessments on players involved over the past few months.”
Wales begin their international campaign with a warm-up game against Leicester Tigers at Welford Road on 15 February before taking on Scotland on 11 March in Glasgow. The team will then travel to Madrid in late March to take part in the U18 FIRA-AER European championship.
“I’d like to thank everyone who was involved including all the regional performance managers and Under 18 coaches,” added Watts.
“As a management group we are really pleased with the number of talented and exciting players coming through the WRU player pathway and we’re looking forward to working with this squad and preparing for the season.”
The squad includes eleven players from the Dragons Region, which is comfortably the highest representation from any one region. Dragons Performance Manager, Will Thomas, commented ‘Since making the required structural changes to the WRU run Dragons Academy set up three years ago, this is the first cohort of players that have fully come through the new pathway and resultant programme. What is even more pleasing is that ten of the eleven players have all been developed through our Junior Academy programme out of Cross Keys College, where their rugby development is delivered alongside the players mainstream education from the ages of 16 to 18.’
The Junior Academy is a joint initiative, funded between the WRU, Coleg Gwent and Cross Keys RFC. Thomas added ‘We are grateful to both the College and Cross Keys RFC for providing funding and sharing the WRUs vision of the need to provide interventionist development to this key age group on a daily basis.’
2012 Wales Under 18 Squad
Forwards
Callum Jay Lewis - Blues
Nicky Smith - Ospreys
Elliot Dee - Dragons
Ethan Lewis - Blues
Scott Otton - Ospreys
Nicky Thomas - Ospreys
Alex Jefferies - Dragons
Gus McPherson - Blues
Scott Andrews - Dragons
Joshua Helps - Scarlets
Derryn Jones - Dragons
Benjamin Roach - Blues
Calum Davies - Ospreys
Scott Matthews - Dragons
James Benjamin - Dragons
Backs
Shaun Clarke - Blues
Connor Lloyd - Scarlets
Luke Crane - Dragons
Gareth Thomson - Blues
Jack Maynard - Scarlets
Dafydd Wyn Howells - Ospreys
Jack Dixon - Dragons
Mike Jones - RGC 1404
Ben Roberts - Ospreys
Steffan Hughes - Scarlets
Lewis Hudd - Dragons
Hallam Amos - Dragons
Ethan Davies - Dragons
