Pugh names sides for Wales’ double-header against the Scots
WALES Under 18 head coach Richie Pugh has named his side to face Scotland U18 at Ystrad Mynach on Sunday (KO 2.30pm).
A Wales U18 Development side has also been selected to play their Scottish counterparts in the curtain raiser which kicks off at 12.30pm.
“What is great is that we have an opportunity through a development game and our capped game to see 46 players represent Wales in what is for a lot of them their first chance in a Welsh jersey,” said Pugh.
“We’ve spoken about progression through the regions from the Schools and Colleges league into the regions and now there’s an opportunity to put themselves up against some of the best nations and Scotland is the challenge as we build towards the Six Nations festival in Parma.”
Steff Emanuel, who recently signed to rejoin Cardiff Rugby, has been named captain.
“It’s great to have his experience back with us as he has been performing really well with Millfield and Bath and obviously last year in the Six Nations,” said Pugh.
“His experience and the respect he gets around him is second to none so for him to be awarded with the captaincy is a huge honour and something he will relish.”
Only 26 players can be selected for the Six Nations festival where Wales take on England, Portugal and France between March 30th – April 7 so there is plenty to play for.
“Everyone has got an opportunity; some will get capped this weekend but boys who aren’t in that line-up are still not that far away.
“Just look at the Wales U20s the other night - there were some boys who weren’t capped at U18 but are still representing U20s so some may feel a little disappointed that they are not included in the capped game but actually there is a huge opportunity for them to showcase what they are about in the Development fixture which is why it is ideal,” he explained.
“We’re in a good place after a good campaign with the Schools and Colleges league and the regional age grade competition and our training camps. We’re all looking forward to the challenge ahead on Sunday now.” Wales U18 v Scotland U18: 15 Jack Woods (Dragons); 14 Tom Bowen (Bristol Bears), 13 Lewis Edwards (Ospreys), 12 Steffan Emanuel (Bath Rugby - capt), 11 Joseff Jones (Cardiff Rugby); 10 Carwyn Jones (Scarlets), 9 Sion Davies (Cardiff Rugby); 1 Dylan James (Ospreys), 2 Ruben Cummings (Gloucester), 3
Jac Pritchard (Scarlets), 4 Sam Williams (Scarlets), 5 Dylan Alford (RGC), 6 Dom Kossuth (Scarlets), 7 Ryan Jones (Dragons), 8 Deian Gwynne (Scarlets)
Reps: 16 Thomas Howe (Cardiff Rugby), 17 George Tuckley (Dragons), 18 Alex Bosworth (Gloucester), 19 Tom Cottle (RGC), 20 Caio James (Gloucester), 21 Tudur Jones (RGC), 22 Steff Jac Jones (Scarlets), 23 Jack Harrison (Bath Rugby)
Wales U18 Development v Scotland U18 Development: 15 Ben Roberts (Cardiffm Rugby); 14 Jac Wyn Roberts (RGC), 13 Osian Darwin Lewis (Cardiff Rugby), 12 DavidFlorian Petrescu (West Midlands), 11 Oliver Das (Cardiff Rugby); 10 Lloyd Lucas (Cardiff Rugby), 9 Nick Fisk-Jones (Ospreys); 1 Dylan Barratt (Cardiff Rugby), 2 Evan Gallagher (Bath Rugby), 3 Codi Purnell (Bath Rugby), 4 Dylan Hodkinson (Sale Sharks), 5 Osian Williams (Scarlets), 6 Cerrig Smith (Dragons), 7 Evan Minto (Dragons - Capt), 8 Charlie Ward (Bath Rugby)
Reps: 16 Oscar Thomas (London & South Central), 17 Greg Thomas (RGC), 18 Nathan Davies (Scarlets), 19 Noah Williams (Ospreys), 20 Alex Ridgway (Scarlets), 21 Carter Pritchard (Dragons), 22 Math Jones (Harlequins), 23 Ioan Penry (Cardiff Rugby)
WORLD Rugby’s Lindsay Starling has underlined the governing body’s confidence in data provided by new smart mouthguards after Scotland head coach Gregor Townsend voiced concerns over the technology.
Townsend spoke out after the Calcutta Cup victory over England, when a second Scottish player in successive matches went off for a head injury assessment that was triggered by mouthguard technology.
“I think we have to really watch what we are doing here by trusting technology that has not been proven,” Townsend said. “There is a bit more work to do before this technology is correct.”
Starling, World Rugby’s science and medical manager, told the PA news agency that seven players in this season’s Guinness Six Nations have been removed from the field purely due to alerts from mouthguards.
The technology features an accelerometer and gyroscope to measure magnitude and frequency of head acceleration events experienced by players during a game.
The Six Nations is the first elite men’s competition to use the technology, which is designed to help with identifying a need for head injury assessments and provide in-game alerts to medical teams.
Starling, who leads on the mouthguard project for World Rugby, said that those seven players had the biggest impacts out of 9,500 head accelerations in nine games so far.
“That is to put it into perspective regarding how rare and small these numbers are in terms of the players coming off,” she said.
“For a player to be removed, it means they have sustained a really big knock. We are confident in the data that comes from the mouthguards and confident in the technology. We wouldn’t be introducing this on such a large scale if we weren’t confident in the data that is coming from them.
“From research we’ve done over the last few years, we have essentially identified a threshold whereby any impact that is occurring to a player above that threshold, it is very likely that the player displays signs of clinical concussion.
“Past this (threshold), the players are sustaining really big impacts. They are in the top 0.1 per cent of impact events.
“When a player is being removed during a match because of a notification that has come from the mouthguard, that is because the player has sustained an impact above this threshold and needs to be removed and checked out by a medical professional.
“We see this as a real game-changer. It enables us to understand information about the players that we have never known before and cannot know just from observing.
“We’ve known for the last decade-plus that concussion is a topic that requires a huge amount of attention.
“Over the last few years that narrative has changed slightly to encompass all head-impact events, all head-acceleration events, not just those that manifest in clinical symptoms such as concussion.”
Mouthguards are also being used in the southern hemisphere’s ongoing Super Rugby competition, while the forthcoming women’s Six Nations will utilise them, in addition to men’s and women’s sevens competitions at the Paris Olympics.
Starling added: “Anything of this magnitude requires time, and a huge part of this is around education that needs to be done with all stakeholders in the game. This year we will be instrumenting over 8,000 rugby players with this technology. I think everyone does understand why this is being done, and that is purely for the welfare of players.”