Wales Under-20s are currently sitting pretty atop of the RBS 6 Nations table after three wins from three – and skipper Ellis Jenkins believes training with the senior squad has played a large part in their success.
Wales Under-20s are currently sitting pretty atop of the RBS 6 Nations table after three wins from three – and skipper Ellis Jenkins believes training with the senior squad has played a large part in their success.
Wales have continued their form from last summer – when they finished third at the Junior World Championship – and after three rounds they remain in pursuit of the Grand Slam.
Last time out their powerful scrum proved pivotal in a 25-10 victory in Viterbo, Italy in difficult conditions, adding to their victories over Wales and away to France.
And Jenkins believes the chance to rub shoulders with Rob Howley’s senior side has paid dividends.
“Scotland have beaten Italy and Ireland and pushed England close so we are going to be doing a lot of work on them over the next week,” said Jenkins.
“Training in live situations with the national team has definitely given us a boost.
“The senior players bring an added intensity and competitive edge to training and set high standards which we’ve taken onto the pitch in our games.”
They will have no easy ride this weekend though as they travel to Inverness to meet a Scotland side buoyant after consigning their opening defeat to England to history, backing it up with victories over Italy and a narrow 21-20 win over Ireland.
Fly-half Tommy Allan has been key to Scotland’s resurgence and he believes the RBS 6 Nations title is still within his side’s reach.
He said: “We did really dig deep against Ireland, second half we were really up against it but it shows that we’ve been training so much on our defence and it showed out there.
“We want to win all the games we have left and then have a chance of winning the Six Nations. We’ve just got to keep working week after week and build ourselves up and then we’ll get the results.”
Ireland meanwhile, host France knowing that their hopes of claiming the RBS 6 Nations crown are effectively over. But that hasn’t stopped prop Chris Taylor insisting that this weekend’s clash is crucial to their Junior World Championship campaign.
“We just have to pick up from the Ireland defeat before we go to France and play them, we need to push on from this,” he said.
“The result was huge in terms of the Six Nations, it’s a big setback, but our long term goal is the World Cup.
“We will learn from the mistakes that we have made here and aim to push on from here.”
In the third game of the weekend, England host Italy looking to force their way back into contention for the title, after they bounced back from their defeat away to Ireland with an impressive 40-10 win over France last time out – captain and No.8 Jack Clifford running in a hat-trick.