Wales U20 v France U20

WALES V FRANCE | CYMRU V FFRAINC
Rhys Barrett
TRUE GRIT
WALES HEAD COACH BYRON HAYWARD WILL BE LOOKING FOR A REPEAT
PERFORMANCE OF TRUE GRIT AND DETERMINATION WITNESSED IN THE DEFEAT
TO ENGLAND WHEN HIS YOUNG SIDE HOST FRANCE IN THE PENULTIMATE
ROUND OF THE U20 SIX NATIONS THIS EVENING AT PARC EIRIAS.
4THURSDAY 10 MARCH 2022 | UNDER-20 SIX NATIONS
Wales ran themselves into the
ground after seeing talismanic
captain Alex Mann sent off in
the 28th minute in Doncaster.
In the modern age you must be whiter than
white, and Wales found that to their cost against
England. What at the time looked like a perfectly
well timed tackle by Mann in the 28th minute, was
then dissected by the TMO and deemed to be a
shoulder to the head of Emeka Ilione.
A promising opening quarter which saw Wales
take the game to their hosts and visibly unsettled
them, was then turned on its head with Mann
seeing red to leave his side a man down for the
rest of the match.
Welsh heads could so easily have dropped, but
they battled away feverishly and made England
work hard for their tries. The final score-line of 43-
14 belied the herculean effort the young men in
red put in as England cut loose and clinically made
sure the extra man counted.
“The boys gave everything - in terms of work
rate and effort I couldn’t have asked any more of
the boys, they gave everything they could,” said
Hayward.
“The scoreboard doesn't do justice with the
effort the boys put in and I know if you look at the
first 25 minutes of that game, I thought we were
more than competitive and we certainly would
have made a good game of it if we had 15 for the
entire match.”
“Ultimately the extra man obviously did the
damage, and it took its toll in the last 20 minutes.
We just ran out of gas; we were trying to use
the bench and they were doing as much as they
could. I couldn’t ask anymore at the end of day
because at this level it does take its toll.
“The fact is I guess if it's the last 10 to 15 minutes
of a game you can manage at 14 but when it
happens with less than 30 minutes gone and you
lose someone that early it takes its toll in the last
10-15 minutes, which it did.”
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