This coming Sunday (March 15), Rodney Parade will play host to the final game for Wales Under 20s’ in the Six Nations against Italy (kick-off 1pm).
As Under-20s fever hits the home of the Dragons, here is a look back at how it went down last year when Wales U20s hosted Ireland in Newport...
The Wales 23 featured; Evan Minto, Logan Franklin, Owain James, Harri Ford and soon to be Dragon Harry Beddall.
Wales started the better side in the game, when in the fourth minute, they were given a penalty try with Ireland’s Billy Corrigan sent to the sin bin.
Richard Whiffin’s side would make it an even better start, following a hack through in the middle of the field from Minto with 2026 co-captain Steffan Emmanuel sprinting to ground the ball for a try, the conversion successful from fly-half Harri Wilde.
A try each from Ireland's Henry Walker and Eoghan Smyth, along with a conversion from Daniel Green in 13 minutes, brought the away side back with two points at the break.
Wales would get a bit more breathing room when Wilde nailed a penalty kick to to increase the lead to five points.
The only other points in the game were scored by Ford, who kicked a wonderful penalty over the posts to finish the game 20-12.
It was a wonderful defensive performance by Wales who put in a huge 228 tackles in the game.
Beddall made a massive 34 tackles himself in this game and led the successful tackles for any player in the tournament with 109, while Minto was third with 72.
Post game Minto, who celebrated his birthday that day, said: “We all just worked hard for each other, we had four new caps today as well, so we just wanted to make it special for them, coming in and working as hard as we could really for the full 80 minutes.”
“We had no idea how many people were actually going to be here, they weren't quiet for the whole game, always so loud.
“You usually can’t hear it but when there’s so many of them and you just hear it on the pitch.
“It really gives you that boost, it’s almost like having a 16th player on the pitch.”
Tickets are available NOW for Wales Under-20s clash against Italy Under-20s at Rodney Parade this weekend. CLICK HERE to buy online.
