FIVE Newport Gwent Dragons prospects will attempt to help Wales get off to a flyer against Australia in their World Rugby U20 Championship opener in Georgia tomorrow evening, writes Chris Kirwan.

Hooker Ellis Shipp, fly-half Arwel Robson and full-back Will Talbot-Davies start in the clash at the Avchala Stadium in Tbilisi (kick-off 5.30pm) while hooker Owen Hughes and wing Joe Goodchild, who is uncapped at this level, are among the replacements.

Wales are in a tough group that features holders England and Samoa.

Last season Jason Strange’s team went into the competition in Manchester as Grand Slam champions but were edged out by Ireland in the opener. They suffered late anguish against New Zealand before finishing seventh.

The head coach is relishing the chance to see his bright prospects in action: “It’s going to be a tough challenge, but it’s one everyone is excited about.

“We tried to expose as many players as possible to this level in the Six Nations because what we found at last year’s event was that you can’t have enough depth in your squad when you are playing five games in 23 days.

“One of the big lessons for all of us, players and coaches, was you can’t afford to switch off at all.

“The first game we lost by a point to Ireland, game two we beat Georgia and then the third game we lost by a point to New Zealand.

“Ireland went on to play in the final and did really well. So our message to the players has been every point matters in this tournament - the difference between scoring a try, your points difference and getting an extra bonus point can make the difference between being runners-up in your group or winning it.

“When you get into the last four anything can happen. The standard of this tournament goes up every year and we know we are going to find out a lot about our players both on and off the field.”

Wales U20: W Talbot-Davies, O Lane, I Nicholas, C Lewis, R Conbeer, A Robson, D Blacker, R Carre, E Shipp, K Assiratti, W Griffiths, C Bradbury, S Lewis-Hughes, W Jones, J Botham. Replacements: O Hughes, T Mably, S Jenkins, S Moore, A Ward, R Morgan-Williams, P Jones, J Goodchild

Tomorrow's fixtures: Pool A - England v Samoa, Australia v Wales; Pool B New Zealand v Scotland, Ireland v Italy; Pool C - South Africa v France, Argentina v Georgia

Wales’ other fixtures: England - Sunday, June 4 (5.30pm); Samoa - Thursday, June 8 (10am)