Newport prop Phil Osborne will make his fifth start of the U21 Six Nations Championship on Friday night when his side take on France U21s at Rodney Parade, kick off 7.10pm.
Academy member Will Jones is named on the replacements bench following Alun Wyn Jones' recovery from injury while Dragons Development player Aled Thomas joins Will as one of the substitutes.
Duane Goodfield, the Pontypridd and Blues Academy hooker, will captain the side taking over the reins from back row forward Tom Smith who is ruled out with a knee ligament injury suffered against Italy last Friday which also threatens his chances of making the 26-player squad for the Under-21 World Cup in France in June.
Ben Lewis (Swansea / Ospreys Academy) is called up to start at blindside flanker with Adam Powell (Pontypridd / Blues Academy) switching to No 8 in place of the unfortunate Smith. Lewis features among three changes made to the starting line-up who beat Italy 36-3, making it three wins from four outings after their four-try 34-24 victory over Scotland, 14-13 win in Ireland and 26-18 defeat by England.
"This is the last match for the players to impress before we name the World Cup squad and, as we are up against France at the World Cup, there is a lot riding on this match," said Head Coach Chris Davey. "We are also playing Argentina and Georgia at the World Cup but it would be good if we could strike a psychological blow against France on Friday ahead of the tournament. France lost for the first time in the 2006 Championship last week when they were beaten by England but while I was pleased with our result against Italy and the fact that it means we have won three on the trot, this will be a tough test for us. There were a lot of pluses but perhaps we are not showing enough patience and we will probably need more variety against the French and change little bits of our approach."
Wales Under-21:
Jamie Roberts (Cardiff/Blues Academy); Aled Brew (Neath/Ospreys Academy), Andrew Bishop (Ospreys), Tom Riley (Pontypridd/Blues Academy), Chris Czekaj (Cardiff Blues); David Flanigan (Pontypridd/Blues Academy), Martin Roberts (Neath/Ospreys Academy); Rhys Gill (Cardiff/Blues Academy), Duane Goodfield (Pontypridd/Blues Academy, captain), Phil Osborne (Newport), Alun Wyn Jones (Swansea/Ospreys Academy), Dominic Day (Carmarthen Quins/Scarlets Academy), Ben Lewis (Swansea/Ospreys Academy), Rhys Shellard (Pontypridd/Blues Academy), Adam Powell (Pontypridd/Blues Academy).
Replacements: Ed Shervington (Neath), Ian Jones (Llanelli/Llanelli Scarlets), Will Jones (Newport/Dragons Academy), Craig Everett (Worcester Academy), Tom Cheeseman (Bath Rugby), Liam Davies (Llanelli/Scarlets Academy), Aled Thomas (Newport/Dragons Academy).
