Wales Rugby League have announced that they will be hosting Ireland in an under 19 international on Friday 17th May at Stebonheath Park in Llanelli (kick-off 7pm).
It’s the first time in five years that they have met at this level, the last time being in Wrexham in 2014 where Wales ran out 86-12 winners in a game played as a curtain raiser before a senior European Championship game between the two nations.
From that game, three of the players – Morgan Knowles, Curtis Davies and Connor Davies – have since become full internationals.
But this time around, the under 19 match is the only event of the evening and hospitality options are available for the evening. Please contact peter.tiffin@walesrugbyleague.co.uk for more details.
Wales under 19 head coach Anthony Walker, who coached Wales to bronze in last year’s European U19 Championships, has named a 25-man training squad following trials earlier this year, 11 of whom were in last year’s side, and they will get together for the first time in a two-day training camp at the official WRL centre in Deeside on April 24-25.
Walker said: “I can’t wait to get into camp. When we had our trials, it was great to see how some of the lads had developed from last year. We’ve some new players standing out in addition to improvement from some familiar faces from last year.
“Camp will be the first time we come together as a collective group and I’m massive on building a team spirit and a team ethos. We have a relatively young squad with players coming from last year’s Wales under 16s, and a good test against Ireland early in the season is perfect for us, we get to look at all our squad in front of a home crowd and hopefully make it a night to remember for these young lads.”
WALES U19 SQUAD 2019 : Jacob Lee, Adam Young (both Aber Valley Wolves), Brandon Aviet, Cadeyrn Hassall, Josh Palmer (all Cardiff Blue Dragons), Ewan Badham (City of Hull Academy), Lewis Hall, Evan Hughes (both Crosfields), Will Clapham (Coleg y Cymoedd), William Lynch (Leigh Miners Rangers), Cai Ellis, James McGurk (both Newcastle Thunder), William Mills, Finlay Swift (both North Wales Crusaders A), Luis Roberts (Salford Red Devils), Harvey McDaid, Keenan McDaid (both St Helens), James Smith (Torfaen Tigers), Mathew Jones, Kieran Lewis, Matthew Morgan, Ieuan Roberts, George Sheppard, Nye Walker (all West Wales Raiders), Billy Glover (Widnes Vikings).