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RILEY PROMOTED TO STARTING LINEUP |
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Written by Neil Hughes
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Thursday, 23 February 2006 |
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Page 1 of 2 Tom Riley, the Pontypridd and Blues Academy centre, has been promoted to the Wales starting line-up for their Under-21 Six Nations clash with Ireland at Athlone RFC on Friday night (kick-off 7.30 pm).
His place on the replacements bench involves a straight switch with Dafydd Hewitt (Cardiff/Blues Academy) in the only change to the team who ran in four tries against Scotland in their 34-24 victory 12 days ago to get back on track after their 26-18 defeat to England in their tournament opener.
"We have had a good look at the performance against Scotland and the only disappointment was that we did not beat them more convincingly on the scoreboard," said Wales Under-21 Head Coach, Chris Davey.
"We produced some great attacking rugby without applying all the finishing touches and we will be out to take it a stage further against Ireland.
"They beat Italy and lost to France but we are not reading anything whatsoever into that defeat by France because it is always a tough challenge playing over there and we will most certainly not be taking the Irish lightly.
"As to the change we have made in the centre, we are well blessed in the midfield and we want to look at all four of the players involved before going to the World Cup in France in June.
"Dafydd has had two starts and Tom is a quality player and this is his opportunity to see what he can bring to the set-up."
Wales Under-21: Jamie Roberts (Cardiff/Blues Academy); Darren Daniel (Llanelli/Scarlets Academy), Andrew Bishop (Ospreys), Tom Riley (Pontypridd/Blues Academy), Chris Czekaj (Cardiff Blues); James Hook (Neath/Ospreys Academy), Martin Roberts (Neath/Ospreys Academy); Rhys Gill (Cardiff/Blues Academy), Duane Goodfield (Pontypridd/Blues Academy), Phil Osborne (Newport), Alun Wyn Jones (Swansea/Ospreys Academy), Dominic Day (Carmarthen Quins/Scarlets Academy), Craig Everett (Worcester Academy), Rhys Shellard (Pontypridd/Blues Academy), Tom Smith (Neath/Ospreys Academy, captain)
Replacements: Ed Shervington (Neath), Ian Jones (Llanelli/Scarlets Academy), Will Jones (Newport/Dragons Academy), Ben Lewis (Swansea/Ospreys Academy), Dafydd Hewitt (Cardiff/Blues Academy), Aled Thomas (Newport/Dragons Academy), Liam Davies (Llanelli/Scarlets Academy)
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