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Wales coach challenges prop to ‘back up’ impressive performance
Wales scrum coach Paul James has challenged Ben Warren to build on his impressive cameo appearance in the victory over Fiji.
The Ospreys tighthead scrummaged well upon entering the fray against Fiji and will be an important player for Wales against Argentina in Santa Fe this Saturday.
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“I’ve been fortunate to see Ben come through down at the Ospreys,” said James.
“He’s young and he brings loads of energy.
“He’s scrummaged really well in training and that’s why he had his opportunity last weekend.
“I thought once he came on against Fiji he was class. He got go forward on the tighthead side so hopefully if he gets an opportunity again it’ll be good to see him back it up.”
And James is hopeful Wales can get more success at the scrum against the Pumas.
“In fairness to our boys they are loving scrummaging at the moment. We are in a good place,” he added. “All of the boys can’t wait for the challenge.
“After their loss against Scotland last week we know Argentina are going to come out really hard and fast.
“We are just ready for the challenge. What I have said to our boys is don’t try to manufacture anything on your own. You stick to our process.
“You scrummage as an eight and you don’t scrummage individually.
“That’s the big message to our boys.”
Wales U20s told to “keep swinging the bat”
Richard Whiffin will encourage his Wales U20 players to keep “swinging the bat” in their final two fixtures at the World Rugby Junior Championship in Georgia in order to end on a high.
Having seen his side play their part to the full in a 13-try clash with the reigning champions South Africa, Whiffin doesn’t want the 52-33 defeat to the Junior Springboks to define their tournament.
That means pulling out all the stops on Sunday when they face Australia in the fifth-place semi-final. They will then meet either Argentina or Scotland in their final match.
“It was a tighter game than the scoreboard showed and we were still pressing the accelerator at the back end of the game. Incredibly proud of the boys,” said Whiffin.
“Now we have to look forward to facing Australia, which is a team this group haven’t played before. It’s great to play a different team because it helps them to build up a knowledge bank to take into their professional careers.
“Our co-captain Deian Gwynne is a warrior with a ‘follow-me’ attitude and the boys get behind him. His collision numbers are huge, and he is going to be a big player for Wales in the future, but for now he wants to end his U20 career with two wins in the last two outings.”
Whiffin was also full of praise for Gwynne’s Gloucester team-mate Caio James, who joined him in putting in another huge shift against the giant South African pack.
“We managed their scrum pretty well but the turning point was when they got their driving maul moving,” added Whiffin.
“We looked dangerous with the ball and we were able to cut them apart when we put our phases together. There was lots of good stuff in that game, we just need to be better.
“We talked before the game about swinging the bat and we scored five tries and had two other chalked off. The problem was the Boks were very clinical when they got into our 22 and they had a big drive presence.”
Darge braced for ultimate test
By Anthony Brown, Press Association
Rory Darge is ready to be tested like never before in Pretoria on Saturday after feeling the full force of South Africa twice already in his career.
The Scots are braced for a formidable challenge at Loftus Versfeld in their second match of the Nations Championship after kicking off their campaign with an impressive win in Argentina last weekend.
Darge, 26, faced South Africa for the first time on neutral territory in Marseille as the Scots lost 18-3 in a pool-stage match at the 2023 World Cup and he and his team-mates endured more disappointment 14 months later, in November 2024, when they went down 32-15 at Murrayfield.
“Both games, they were a hard team to play against,” said the Glasgow back-rower. “They do their things very well, the physicality side of things, the set-piece, the athletes within their side, they’re really trying to disrupt your play and take you away from your game around the breakdown and your own attack, so, yes, I definitely felt that.
“In terms of how it prepares you (for Saturday), I think there are bits from those games you can look at, but both teams are so different now and have evolved with different players.
“The pressure they put you under and the pressure that you feel, it’s hard to replicate until you get into the Test match.
“It’s definitely one of the toughest challenges going against South Africa at Loftus.”
Darge is used to playing in South Africa for Glasgow on league duty and one of the best moments of his career came at Loftus when he was part of the Warriors side that defeated Bulls there to win the United Rugby Championship grand final two years ago.
“I think it can help to have experienced that,” he said. “A lot of us have played at altitude before and know what to expect, but it’s a different set of circumstances on Saturday.”
Scotland appeared to be in the doldrums after their capitulation against Argentina in the autumn was followed by defeat to Italy in their Six Nations opener in February, but they have responded by winning four of their last five Tests to return to the top five in the world rankings for the first time in almost three years.
“In terms of our performance, we’ve been in a bit of a natural progression since the autumn and that’s continuing now,” said Darge.
“It was tough lessons obviously in the autumn. We were fairly vulnerable after that Argentina game in terms of how we were with each other and really trying to look at what we can learn and how we can improve.
“There’s been things that we’ve learned in those meetings, particularly around the momentum side of the game. Obviously, that Argentina game, the momentum really went against us.
“We’ve had some learnings and we’ve had some good results, but there’s plenty to work on even from the weekend.”
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