Having held world ranked No 8 side Spain to a 2-2 draw last weekend the Welsh men’s hockey team will face three tests against the French this weekend.

Two tight games in Spain  – a 2-2 draw was followed by a 4-1 defeat – will have given Zak Jones’ squad a huge amount of confidence heading to France as they continue their build up to the Commonwealth Games.

“Barcelona was a positive start to 2018 and our preparation for the Gold Coast. We knew before we went that the margins would be small and so they proved to be,” said head coach, Jones.

“We performed pretty well considering how little hockey the guys have played in the last six weeks. We competed well for all but three minutes of the series against a side that recently beat both Argentina and the Netherlands in the World League finals.

“That spell proved costly, but I am confident that the experience will aid our learning and development going forward.”

France v Wales
Game 1: Friday, 26 January (14:30pm)
Game 2: Saturday, 27 January (14:30pm)
Game 3: Sunday, 28 January (11:00am)

Welsh Squad
David Kettle GK (Teddington), Jack Tranter GK (Nottingham University), James Fortnam GK (Cardiff & Met), Gareth Furlong (Surbiton), Jonny Gooch (Hampstead & Westminster), Dan Kyriakides  (Reading), Hywel Jones (Birmingham Uni), Ioan Wall (Cardiff & Met), Rhys Doherty (Richmond), Jacob Draper (Cardiff & Met), Lewis Prosser (Surbiton), James Kyriakides (Southgate), Andy Siemann  (Richmond), Rob Mugridge (Oxted), Rhodri Furlong (Birmingham Uni), Dale Hutchinson  (Reading), Rupert Shipperley (Hampstead & Westminster), Owain Dolan-Gray (Reading), Alf Dinnie (Cardiff & Met), Steve Kelly (Hampstead & Westminster), Luke Hawker (Cardiff & Met), Ben Francis (Reading), Rhys Gowman (Cardiff & Met), James Carson  (Reading), Rhys Bradshaw (Cardiff & Met)