Wales U20s claim hard-fought win over Spain U20s

Wales Online

09-07-2025

Wales U20s snatched victory from the jaws of defeat to claim a hard-fought 35-25 victory over Spain U20s in Verona.
Richard Whiffin's side were staring down the barrel of what would have been an embarrassing defeat at half-time but they regained their composure to edge out impressive Spain. Wales must now wait on other results to determine whether they enter the 5th-8th placed play-offs or the 9th-12th placed play-offs of the World Rugby U20s Championship.
If they were to drop into the 9th-12th section then relegation to the second-tier World Rugby Trophy would be the worst case scenario.
Wales had to dig deep to overcome Spain with tries from Evan Wood, Caio James, Sion Davies and Jack Woods along with a penalty try enough to claim a bonus point victory.
Oriol Marsinyac Garcia, Liam McNamee and Manex Pujana Lendinez claimed Spain's tries.
Nicolas Infer opened the scoring for Spain from the kicking tee but Wales hit back when Ellis Price sliced through the defence before offloading to Ellis Lewis.
Spain were forced to concede a penalty which prompted Wales to go for the corner and set up a strong driving lineout which resulted in a penalty try.
To rub further salt into Spanish wounds Guardin Gonzalez Ciscar got sent to the sin bin for illegally sacking the lineout.
The Wales backs looked very good and they should have scored a second but Aidan Boshoff ignored an unmarked man on his outside in the Spain 22.
But they were playing penalty advantage with Lewis taking it quickly before the ball was knocked on just short of the try line.
Wales claimed their second try soon after when Wood powered over from short-range off the back of another strong driving lineout.
But Spain clicked into gear as their backs proceeded to rip Wales to shreds out wide.
On one occasion right-wing Pablo Mateos raced clear before chipping over the top of the Wales defence but Beltran Ortega failed to hold onto the offload.
But Spain also had an effective route one approach and had a try disallowed by the TMO after they succeeded in muscling their way over the line.
However, they finally got their just rewards when impressive outside centre Garcia hit a tremendous angle to score with Infer adding the extras. Infer knocked over the conversion to cut Wales' lead to a mere point.
Wales' task got tougher when scrum-half Lewis got sent to the sin bin for tackline a man without the ball.
All the momentum was with Spain as loosehead prop Hugo Gonzalez hit a phenomenal line to charge into the Wales 22.
After a period of pressure second-row McNamee claimed Spain's second try with Infer's conversion leaving Wales trailing 18-14 at the interval.
Wales started the second-half strongly and regained the lead when industrious openside flanker James showed his strength to muscle over from short range.
Whiffin's side began to flex their muscles with a lovely break from Harri Ford putting replacement scrum-half Davies over for a try.
But Spain refused to throw in the towel and after some nice handling, powerful No 8 Lendinez crossed for a try.
Wales put the result beyond doubt when James charged clear down the blindside to put Woods over for a try which Ford converted from the touchline.
Wales Under-20s: Lewis Edwards; Elijah Evans, Osian Darwin-Lewis, Elis Price, Aidan Boshoff; Harri Wilde, Ellis Lewis; Ioan Emanuel, Evan Wood, Jac Pritchard, Luke Evans, Nick Thomas, Deian Gwynne, Caio James, Harry Beddall (capt).
Replacements: Jake Bowen, Owain James, Sam Scott, Dan Gemine, Evan Minto, Sion Davies, Harri Ford, Jack Woods.