COACH RELISHES TEST

WALES Under-20 head coach Gareth Williams is relishing the chance to lead the team in his first Six Nations after learning from the best in last November’s Under Armour Series.

Williams spent the autumn shadowing Wales’ senior men’s side and worked closely with Warren Gatland, Rob Howley, Shaun Edwards, Robin McBryde and Neil Jenkins.

Now he is in charge of the Under-20 set-up and can’t wait for today’s Six Nations opener with France (1400GMT), the current world champions at that level.

“It was fantastic for me to be involved with the senior Wales environment in the autumn and I was very grateful to be able to work alongside such great coaches,” Williams said.

“It was a great opportunity for me to develop as a coach, get hands on, and work with some topclass players. Now I’m ready to roll my sleeves up and work in this year’s Under-20 Six Nations.

“The camps we’ve had ahead of this tournament have been very competitive and the players have been great to work with. It’s all very exciting from my point of view.”

Leicester Tigers backrow Tommy Reffell cap- tains Wales Under-20 in France.

Williams’ side includes a total of eight players getting their first taste of Six Nations action with backs Ioan Davies, Tom Hoppe, Aneurin Owen and Deon Smith among them.

They join forwards Ben Warren, Teddy Williams, Jac Price and Jac Morgan as debutants.

Harri Morgan of the Ospreys is one of the more experienced members of the side and starts at scrum-half on the back of regular Guinness PRO14 action this season.

Taine Basham of the Dragons is another with similar experience and he starts at No 8.

“Harri has done well at the highest level. France will have a lot of players with TOP14 experience in their side so to have him available is a boost to us,” Williams added.