Three Scarlets have been named in the Wales U19s side to take on France in an international at Rugby Club Massy Essonne on Saturday (KO 3.30pm).
Carmarthen fly-half Carwyn Leggatt-Jones (pictured) will wear the No. 10 jersey, Lampeter’s Kai Jones starts at blindside flanker, while Loughborough University student Joe Denman also features in the back row at openside.
The trip to the southern suburbs of Paris is one of three opportunities for Wales U20s head coach Richard Whiffin to assess a wider pool of players as he prepares to name his Six Nations squad early in the New Year.
Following Saturday’s encounter Wales U19s will then next be in action at Ystrad Mynach next month against England while Wales U20s will entertain Scotland at Merthyr RFC’s ground just before the festive period.
“We’re really excited for the opportunity of getting out to Paris and playing France U19s at Massy, a very famous rugby club in Paris,” said Whiffin.
“The boys are excited at getting that opportunity against one of the best teams in the world.
“The game shows we are beefing up our U19s programme by getting a fixture in this early in the year and it allows us to get a look at more players early in the season and gives those guys a chance to put their hands up for U20s Six Nations selection in a couple of months.
“We want to get players in the red jersey as much as possible. For the U19s for a lot of them it’s the first year out of school, some are still in school so it’s a jump to U20s therefore this U19s programme allows them to understand what an international programme looks like.”
Looking ahead to the clash against France, Whiffin said: “We’ve spoken about wanting to be brave both sides of the ball,so I expect us to be expansive and play to space when the opportunity arrives and then from a defensive point of view we want to be aggressive and really try and get the ball back.
“In terms of scorelines it’s more about the performance – the key thing for us is firstly the boys connecting and secondly showing the brave performance we’re after.”
Wales U19s v France U19s at Rugby Club Massy Essonne, Sat 15 Nov, KO 3.30
15 Rhys Cummings (Cardiff Rugby)
14 Joseff Jones (Cardiff Rugby)
13 Bailey Cutts (Cardiff Rugby)
12 Jack Hoskins (Ospreys)
11 Ben Evans (Ospreys)
10 Carwyn Leggatt-Jones (Scarlets)
9 Carter Pritchard (Dragons RFC);
1 George Leyland (Bristol)
2 Tom Howe (Cardiff Rugby)
3 Nathan Davies (Dragons RFC)
4 Oscar Rees (Gloucester)
5 Osian Williams (Bristol Bears)
6 Kai Jones (Scarlets)
7 Joe Denman (Scarlets)
8 Cerrig Smith (Capt) (Dragons RFC)
Replacements
16 James Talamai (Dragons RFC)
17 Dylan Barratt (Cardiff Rugby)
18 Callum Donoghue-Proud (Cardiff Rugby)
19 Sonny McCabe (Cardiff Rugby)
20 Luke Daniel (Dragons RFC)
21 Sam Morgan (Ospreys)
22 Luca Woodyatt (Gloucester)
23 Lloyd Lucas (Cardiff Rugby)
24 Morgan Carter (Dragons RFC)
25 Rhys Cole (Dragons RFC)
26 Noah Morgan (Dragons RFC)