photo by Ian Lovell

Wales go into unknown territory this Saturday when their A side face France at Aberavon Greenstars RFC (kick-off 3pm).

The two nations have met at full international level 37 times but Saturday will be the first time that their A sides have competed.

This is a friendly international but France are keen to join in with the England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales in their annual A international tournament that Wales has won outright four times in the five years that it has been running.

Wales have made ten changes to the side that beat Scotland 44-30 earlier this month with Great Britain under-18 captain Lee Williams bring one of the welcome additions. The winger, who is on Celtic Crusaders’ books, is on great form having scored four tries and four goals in Valley Cougars’ excellent 32-28 win at Newport Titans last week. Karl Hocking captains the side as he did against Scotland.

Wales coach Wayne Williams explained his reasoning behind the amount of changes to a winning side.

Williams said: “Even with a win under our belts, the decision was made at the start of the season to give a number of players an opportunity to gain representative honours within the first two matches to add strength in depth and then finish the competition with our strongest possible squad.

“The game against Scotland gave the staff food for thought with some outstanding performances from many players like Mark Wheeler, David James and most notably John Bowd.

“Saturday’s encounter will possibly offer different challenges than against Scotland, but without any real background on today’s opponents we have concentrated on tightening up our weaker sections from the Scotland game and pushing on with our more profitable areas.

“A number of us have played against France in the Students and U18s Championships and we have all had the same experiences; extremely physical, quality ball handling and very creative, so Saturday should hopefully be a great spectacle.”

Wales: David James (Blackwood Bulldogs), Lee Williams (Valley Cougars), Christian Roets (Bridgend Blue Bulls),

Paul Collette (Cardiff Demons), Daniel Bletthyn (NPT Steelers), Paul Emmanuelli (Blackwood Bulldogs), Gareth David (Bridgend Bulls), Mark Wheeler (Newport Titans), Byron Williams (Blackwood Bulldogs), Karl Hocking (Bridgend Blue Bulls), Jason Hill (Torfaen Tigers), John Bowd (Newport Titans), Matt Entwhistle (Torfaen Tigers). Subs: John Trickey (Cardiff Demons), Graham Hughes (Cardiff Demons), Dean Scully (NPT Steelers), Dan Williams (Bridgend Blue Bulls), Lloyd White (Newport Titans).

There are just two games this weekend in the Welsh Rugby League Conference with Cardiff Demons hosting Torfaen Tigers on Friday night (7pm) and Neath-Port Talbot Steelers welcoming the Bridgend Blue Bulls on Saturday with a 1pm kick off ahead of the Wales A match with France.

Torfaen are on a high after their excellent win over the Blackwood Bulldogs last weekend but face a Demons side who are unbeaten at home this season.

Tigers coach Scott Bendon said: “We had a great win last week and hope to continue that against Cardiff. We are aiming to get a home draw in the play-offs and to do that we must beat the Demons and get a result against the Steelers the following week. This is a great incentive and the boys are really up for the challenge.”

On Saturday the Steelers will be desperate to claim a vital win and gain revenge for last year’s last second defeat by the Bulls.

The Steelers, last year known as Aberavon Fighting Irish, came within seconds of beating Bridgend but the Bulls scored a late and controversial score for a single point win and the Steelers want revenge.

“We were all gutted last year” said player-coach James Davies. “To play so well then lose in the very last second and on the final play of the ball was heartbreaking and we want to put that right this weekend”. 

The Steelers will give debuts to Jon McPhail, Chris Kinsey and former Blue Bull Gareth James and all three are expected to make a big impact.

Blue Bulls will be missing a number of their star names with four selected to play in the Wales game and a number out through injury, but the reigning champions welcome back Marc Davies, Lenny Woodard and Tevita Manaseitava for the game at Little Warren.

Team Manager Simon Green said “We will miss the guys playing for Wales but we have a strong squad and the guys coming in will give 100%. All our matches against the Fighting Irish were tough and very physical games and I don’t expect this one to be any different just because they have changed their name.”

article by Ian Golden and Simon Green
28 June 2007