Wales U18 win well in George

On lush Outeniqua Park with the mountains in the background, Wales Under-18 beat Italy Under-18 32-10 on Tuesday afternoon in the second round of the six-team international series taking place in the Western Cape.

Wales, wearing grey, were much too good for Italy who relied heavily on their forwards who outscrummed Wales till the latter part of the match, drove hard at Wales in the early part of the match and were competitive at the tackle. But they could not do what Wales could do – find their way to the goal-line.

Italy kicked off and attacked but, on advantage from a gross knock-on at a kick, Wales broke out down the left and then went far right to Teri Morgan-Gee who raced 38 metres down the right touchline for a try. 5-0 after 3 minutes.

Italy were hot on the attack and close to the Welsh line when there was a sad interruption of the match. The referee suddenly stopped play, for in making a tackle, the Welsh centres had clashed heads. . It took some 10 minutes to stabilise Kieran Williams and remove him from the field on a motorised stretcher. He regained consciousness and was taken to hospital for a scan. Word was later that he was  fine but would have further investigation.

Billy McBryde came on to inside centre in Williams's place and Connor Edwards kept playing.

Play resumed with a five metre scrum to Italy and they went right with the fullback Gabriele Leveratto in the line. He was fast and strong enough to get over for the try. 5-all after 15 minutes.

After a line-out, Wales bashed at the line and then went right to Morgan-Gee who went for the corner brushing off an attempt to grasp him by the shoulder. 10-5 after 19 minutes.

McBryde broke strongly and Wales went through phases, 11 of them till McBryde handed off and accelerated over for a try. 15-5 after 32 minutes.

Italy lost a player to the sin bin when prop Daniël Rampelli picked up Morgan-Gee in a tackle/ruck, tipped him over till his feet were up in the air and dropped him down, falling on him. Rampelli was fortunate that the sanction was only a yellow card.

From the ensuing penalty, Callum Hall goaled and the half-time score was 18-5 to Wales.

After a scrum near the Italian line, there was a tackle/ruck from which scrumhalf Efan Jones went left to Shaun Evans and the big flank burst over for a try which Hall converted. 25-5.

There was another long injury break when substitute Michael De Marco of Port Elizabeth was tackled and an accidental knee struck his head. He, too, was taken off on the motorised stretcher.

Italy then scored an exciting try. In his own half Leveratto stepped three players and gave to big centre Andrea Bronzini who raced down the field for a try. 25-10 after 52 minutes.

From a line-out Wales bashed and Edwards swivelled through some feeble tackling and scored under the posts. 32-10 with 14 minutes to play.

There was no further score in those 14 minutes when the Italians appeared dispirited.

Scorers:

For Wales:

Tries: Morgan-Gee 2, Shaun Evans, McBryde, Edwards

Cons: Hall 2

Pen: Hall

For Italy:

Tries: Leveratto, Bronzini

Teams

Italy: 15 Gabriele Leveratto, 14 Yuma Santo, 13 Andrea Bronzini, 12 Davide Mori, 11 Andrea Papa, 10 Roberto Dal Zilio, 9 Giovanni Lucchin, 8 Duccio Cosi,  (captain), 6 Andrea Martani, 5 Giordano Baldino, 4 Jacopo Morona, 3 Dante Gavrilita, 2 Alberto Rollero, 1 Daniele Rimpelli

Replacements: 17 Giacomo Braggié, 26 Massimo Ceciliani, 18 Giacomo Saccë, 19 Daniel Orso, 20 Giovanni Licata, 25 Michael De Marco, 21 Pietro Fontana, 22 Francesco Cozzi, 23 Aldo Incarbone, 16 Leandro Pagliarini, 24 Edoardo Pezzano

Wales:15 Daniel Cross, 14 Teri Morgan-Gee, 13 Connor Edwards, 12 Kieran Williams, 11 Ianto Parry, 10 Callum Hall, 9 Efan Jones,8 Morgan Sieniawski, 7 Shaun Evans, 6 Shane Lewis-Hughes, 5 Bryce Morgan, 4 Calum Haggett (captain), 3 Steff Thomas, 2 Gerwyn Coleman, 1 Rhys Fawcett

Replacements: 16 Ellis Shipp, 17 Keiron Assirati, 18 Cory Domachowski, 19 Leon Brown, 20 Callum Bradbury, 21 Matthew Aubrey, 22 Billy McBryde, 23 Josh Hodson

Referee: Sindile Ngcese (South Africa)

Assistant referees: Luc Ramos (France), Ruan Meiring (South Africa)

Television match official: Jason Jaftha (South Africa)