Five Scarlets have been named in the Wales squad to face Australia in the fifth-place semi-final of the U20 World Championship at Danie Craven Stadium in Stellenbosch on Sunday (6pm BST).
Macs Page switches from wing to outside centre, Rhodri Lewis comes in at scrum-half, while Isaac Young gets the nod again at hooker. Harry Thomas provides the cover for the No. 2 jersey on the bench, while Lucca Setaro is also named among the replacements.
“The nature of the tournament means you have to be smart and rotate the squad,” said head coach Richard Whiffin.
“Harry Beddall is back fit now and therefore comes in to give us big energy. That gives Lucas de la Rua an opportunity to make an impact off the bench.
“We’ve been smart around our backline. We’ve been asking a lot of the amount of metres we want our backs to get through in terms of kick chase and territory gain so we’ve changed a few of those positions
“We’re reasonably healthy – we’ve had to make a couple of changes but we’re looking forward to Sunday.”
Whiffin is adamant the next two games are not just about performance, but also getting results.
“We’re in a rugby championship and these boys don’t get a lot of opportunities to play southern hemisphere teams and play against different styles. Our challenge is to take these scalps, we want our players to get used to beating tier one teams on a regular basis so when they graduate through to the international senior set-up they are playing guys that they have beaten before. And that is important as you don’t want any scar tissue.
“We’ve put a bit of pressure on the boys to come away with a couple or results in the next two games. Yes we want a performance but we’re in a window now where it is about results.”
Wales U20 v Australia U20, 5th-place semi-final, Danie Craven Stadium, Sunday 14 July, 6pm BST
15 Matty Young (Cardiff Rugby); 14 Kodie Stone (Cardiff Rugby), 13 Macs Page (Scarlets), 12 Louie Hennessey (Bath Rugby), 11 Aidan Boshoff (Bristol Bears); 10 Harri Wilde (Cardiff Rugby), 9 Rhodri Lewis (Scarlets); 1 Jordan Morris (Dragons RFC), 2 Isaac Young (Scarlets), 3 Sam Scott (Bristol Bears), 4 Jonny Green (Harlequins), 5 Nick Thomas (Dragons RFC), 6 Ryan Woodman (Dragons RFC – Capt), 7 Harry Beddall (Leicester Tigers), 8 Morgan Morse (Ospreys)
Replacements: 16 Harry Thomas (Scarlets), 17 Ioan Emmanuel (Bath Rugby), 18 Kian Hire (Ospreys), 19 Gethyn Cannon (Dragons RFC), 20 Lucas de la Rua (Cardiff Rugby), 21 Lucca Setaro (Scarlets), 22 Harri Ford (Dragons RFC), 23 Steffan Emanuel (Cardiff Rugby).