Wales U20’s kept their semi-final hopes alive in the World Rugby U20 Championship with a battling 10-9 triumph over Georgia on Saturday. But now they face the ultimate test against New Zealand, who will be hurting after they were beaten 33-24 by Ireland.
Jason Strange's side knows only a win will do as they chase down a best-runners up spot in Pool A, and Dragons no.8 Harrison Keddie wants his men to go on the offensive.
He said: "It's still all to play for, all we can do is go out and give it our best against New Zealand. We're going to play without fear and have a really attacking mindset to get at them. But we need to be accurate as well in attack and defence and not concede many points.
"Sometimes you have your days at the set-piece, and hopefully we can have a good day against New Zealand and get that platform to attack from."
Strange has made seven changes to his starting line-up after Wales failed to hit top-gear against the brave Eastern Europeans. And Keddie has called on his men to embrace the occasion and enjoy their time in the limelight.
He said: "We knew what we had to do but it didn't quite work for us out there against Georgia. We wanted to keep the ball for long periods of time and go through the phases and wear them out. We could use the weather as an excuse but we are taking responsibility. Credit to Georgia, they were brutal, they had a good go at us at the set-piece and they had a good go at us.
“It’s great to be involved in a tournament like this, its getting more and more viewers each year which gives us great exposure. There’s no better feeling than testing yourself against the best players in the world at this level.”
Wales U20 v New Zealand (Wednesday 15 June, AJ Bell Stadium, Salford, live on S4C)
Rhun Williams (Cardiff Blues); Tom Williams (Ospreys), Joe Thomas (Ospreys), Harri Millard (Cardiff Blues), Jared Rosser (Newport Gwent Dragons); Daniel Jones (Scarlets), Reuben Morgan-Williams (Ospreys); Corey Domachowski (Cardiff Blues), Dafydd Hughes (Scarlets), Dillon Lewis (Cardiff Blues), Shane Lewis-Hughes (Cardiff Blues), Seb Davies (Cardiff Blues), Tom Phillips (captain, Scarlets), Shaun Evans (Scarlets), Harrison Keddie (Newport Gwent Dragons)
Replacements: Liam Belcher (Cardiff Blues), Rhys Fawcett (Scarlets), Leon Brown (Newport Gwent Dragons), Josh Macleod (Scarlets), Morgan Sieniawski (Cardiff Blues), Declan Smith (Scarlets); Jarrod Evans (Cardiff Blues), Billy McBryde (Scarlets)
