Wales U20 coach Jason Strange believes his team will face England in confident mood after opening their Six Nations campaign with an emphatic 36-3 at Colwyn Bay.
Strange’s side scored five tries at Parc Eirias to claim a bonus point victory and will now go to Gloucester on Friday with a spring in their step as they take on the Championship favourites.
Centre Corey Baldwin scored two tries with others from scrum-half Harri Morgan, wing Joe Goodchild and flanker Dan Davies.
Full-back Cai Evans – son of former Wales captain Ieuan Evans – kicked four conversions in an accomplished display.
His opposite number, Scotland full-back Paddy Dewhirst landed Scotland’s only points with a penalty.
It may have taken a while for the bonus-point try to come in the second half after a blistering burst of three first-half scores, but the patience shown by the home side, allied to their superb defence, had Strange beaming at the end.
“It was a good start to the campaign and we’re pleased with the result. We looked like a team playing our first game, but I’m very pleased with the effort,” said Strange.
“We needed to be a bit more clinical and we will improve for next week. England will always pose a huge challenge, but we will look forward to taking them on away from home.”
This game was all about blooding a lot of the young talent that performed so well for Wales Under 18 in South Africa in August as Strange and his coaching team look to deepen the depth of their squad ahead of this summer’s Junior World Championship in France.
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Two of the ‘old guard’, outside half Ben Jones and man of the match loose head prop Rhys Carre provided the experience, but the performances of exciting youngsters such as 17-year-old scrum halves Harri Morgan and his replacement Dan Babos, full back Cai Evans, centre Callum Carson, back row men Tommy Reffell, Taine Basham and Dan Davis showed they all have much to offer.
Playing into the stiff breeze, Wales took less than three minutes to notch their first score. Jack Pope stole the first of many Scottish line-outs and after two minutes of concerted attack, Carson cut through and released Morgan for a debut try.
Evans added the extras, as he did to four of the five tries and kicked a penalty, and the second try came moments after Paddy Dewhurst had kicked what proved to be the visitors’ only points of the night. This time it was Carre who had a hand in starting the move as he took a quick throw in at the front of a line out to help set wing Ryan Conbeer off on a run.
Davis joined in on the left before the ball was swept to the right, where Joe Goodchild was able to go over in the right corner. A neat chip into no-man’s land by Jones then enabled Corey Baldwin to race onto a kind bounce and race 40 metres to the posts for a third try.
That made it 19-3 at the break and it took a long range Evans penalty to add to the home score in the second half. Then came the bonus-point try from close range by the ever-alert Davis before Babos picked out the charging Baldwin for his second try of the night three minutes before the end.