The NextGen needs to be close at hand

IT WAS great to see the World Rugby U20 Championship back in full swing and it was a pretty cathartic exercise for the Welsh team. Wins over Japan and Romania may have been the highlights, but scoring five tries against a powerful Junior Wallabies team and getting within a point of New Zealand were also creditable performances. After their whitewash in the Six Nations it was proof enough that there is plenty of talent in the group.

- SHANE WILLIAMS

The squad will arrive home from South Africa today and what happens next to Ryan Woodman and his players is vital. His group becomes one of the most important in Welsh rugby. They are the NextGen.

Nine of the players who were in Switzerland with Warren Gatland’s World Cup training squad played in the 2019 World Rugby U20 tournament. Ten, in fact, if you included Taine Plumtree, who played for New Zealand.

So, whoever is in charge of planning in the high-performance department at the WRU – Huw Bevan or John Alder – needs to stick close to the ‘Class of 23’. From what I saw there are definitely players who will be pushing for senior honours in four years’ time in a similar fashion to Dewi Lake, Jac Morgan and Rio Dyer from 2019.

The important thing is they are given the time to grow into the senior game, rather than be discarded before they get their chance to shine. It might be a bit too soon for some of them to be propelled into the regional ranks straight away, although that might be necessary given the current financial plight of the regions. I just hope they don’t treat them as cannon fodder, but properly nurture the talent that is on their books.