Dafydd Jenkins says Wales U20 will go into their Six Nations Summer Series final showdown with the Baby Boks buoyed by the senior side’s success in South Africa and confident of upsetting the form book.
A hat-trick of victories over Scotland, Georgia and Italy earned Byron Hayward’s side a shot at South Africa after they had swept the board in their pool with impressive wins over England, Ireland and France.
“South Africa will be a different level to what we’ve faced up to now, but if you look at our pack and the players in it, there’s no reason why we can’t match their physicality,” said the 19-year-old second row.
“There are some freaks in our pack and we’ll look to target their set-piece. We’re going to focus on ourselves because we are a hard team to beat now.
“We need to make it really scrappy, make it an individual battle between your opposite number, and we will just go to the end. We don’t want to give them too much respect.
“We want to play like the seniors did when they played out there. We will try to follow what they did and get a win.”
Wales finished fifth in the U20s Six Nations with one win out of five, but fast forward four months and Hayward’s side are a different proposition altogether. Both Jenkins and his Exeter Chiefs lock partner Christ Tshiunza both missed the Six Nations campaign and have added some serious fire-power up front to the Welsh pack.
Both players have pointed out the importance of training alongside England and British & Irish Lions lock Jonny Hill at the Chiefs.
“He was class for me. He wasn’t playing much when I was there because he had a foot injury, but off the field he was amazing in terms of how to train, how to do certain things around the pitch and he was very helpful,” said Jenkins.
“I’m just going to have a big pre-season at the Chiefs now, put a few games together and maybe put my hand up to get into the Welsh senior set-up as soon as possible. Whether that’s before this World Cup or after is purely down to me and what I can do on the pitch and whether I can play well enough.
“I’m really looking forward to next season now and getting a few more games and some consistent game-time in the Premiership. It’s a good level to play at. I’m relishing every opportunity out there.”