Wales under 16s will take on Super League and international opposition as their summer programme is confirmed.
Catalans Dragons will visit Wales for matches against the under 16s at Virginia Park, Caerphilly on Thursday 21st July (kick-off 6.30pm) and Stebonheath Park, Llanelli on Saturday 23rd July (kick-off 1pm) to kick off one of the biggest programmes for this age grade for a long time.
A few days later the squad will then travel to West Hull to play against their under 16s at Bishop Burton College before facing Northwest Lionhearts in a capped fixture in Stebonheath Park, Llanelli.
Then the summer culminates with a full international fixture on Sunday 28th August where the squad will travel over to Ireland to face their National under 16s.
The first game in their programme was last week as they faced the Welsh Junior Conference side, South Wales Rabbitohs at Pontyclun, this was a tough test for the squad resulting in the Welsh Under 16s pipping the Rabbitohs to the post.
Jon Ellis, Wales Rugby League’s coaching and performance manager, said: “With England pulling out of the annual international, the under 16s programme could have fallen into a bit of a crisis. However with a lot of hard work from all the under 16s’ staff there is now an excellent programme of very high quality games with some exceptional opposition to play against. Special thanks go to Wayne Ponting, Andrew Thorne and Peter Tiffin for the work they are doing with the squad.
“In order for Wales to develop players we need to be playing against high calibre opposition especially on the international programme. The games organised will without a doubt improve the players and the coaching staff, giving everyone involved an education as to what is needed to play and coach at the highest level. It’s also great to see Wales under 16s playing against one of my old clubs in West Hull and further cementing the relationship with the City of Hull academy where I am sure one or two of the Welsh players will get noticed.”
FULL UNDER 16s PROGRAMME
Thursday 21st July – Catalans Dragons – Virginia Park -18:30
Saturday 23rd July – Catalans Dragons – Stebonheath Park – 13:00
Wednesday 27th July – West Hull – Bishop Burton College – 16:00
Saturday 6th August – Northwest Lionhearts – Stebonheath Park – 16:00
Sunday 28th August – Ireland – Ashbourne -15:00
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