Two-try hero Tom Bowen wants to end his U20 Six Nations career on a high at Rodney Parade on Sunday with a victory over Italy.

Having gone down to the Irish 48-33 in a game that featured 12 tries last weekend, the Cardiff wing wants to recapture the spirit of last season in Round 5 when Wales return to the venue at which they beat the Irish last year.

“We have great memories of playing at Rodney Parade from last season and in what will be the last U20 Six Nations outing for many of us, hopefully we can make it something to remember,” said Bowen.

“We are proud of the effort in Cork, but while we have put in a lot of good performances in this campaign we’ve just been on the wrong side of the results.
“There was a lot of transition in the game and a lot of attacking. The bounce of the ball went their way a little bit more than us and the game could have looked a lot different.

“There are some key learnings for us as we look forward to Italy. The breakdown killed our momentum and we have to be cleaner there – we lost a few races there and we weren’t on it.”

The Irish back row had an exceptional evening and Wales suffered 14 turnovers during the game. There was also a key interception in front of their posts by the Irish which led to Dan Ryan racing 80 metres to score in what was effectively a 14 point turn around.

Had he not picked off that pass, and Wales had scored as they surely would have, then there could have been a mere one point difference in a game that saw Wales enjoy greater territory and possession, yet fail to turn it to their advantage.

“It was almost ‘you score, we score’. We couldn’t get two tries on the trot to get closer to them and we just didn’t have enough in the end,” admitted Wales head coach Richard Whiffin.

“We started well, as we have done all season, and got ourselves into a good position. We managed the second half really well and then we had that huge swing in momentum when we were on their line looking to score and they intercepted and scored.

“It’s disappointing because we worked really hard. We were disappointed with our work at the break down and we need to look at that before the Italy game.

“We let them score too softly and we needed more accuracy. We created a bit of a mountain for ourselves to climb.

“We’re all excited to get back to Rodney Parade this weekend and we want to see plenty of fans come out on Mother’s Day. We want to give them a good performance.

“Italy have been decent at U20 level in recent years and have great physicality. We need to lick our wounds and shore up our defence.”