DRAGONS Aneurin Owen and Ben Carter have retained their places in the Wales side for Friday night’s U20 Six Nations clash with France – but Ewan Rosser, Dafydd Buckland and Will Griffiths miss out.

Wales head coach Gareth Williams has made seven changes in all for the encounter at Stadiwm Zip World in Colwyn Bay (kick-off 7.35pm).

Williams’ men are chasing a first win in this year’s championship following a 17-7 home defeat by Italy and 36-22 loss to defending champions Ireland in Cork.

Injuries and illness to key individuals have brought about the overhaul in some cases, although Williams is also keen to freshen up the squad with a few new faces.

Jacob Beetham starts at full-back, replacing Ioan Lloyd, while wingers Frankie Jones and Mason Grady come in for Dan John and Dragons speedster Rosser.

Outside centre Osian Knott suffered a bang against Ireland and is replaced by Bradley Roderick, and Ellis Bevan takes over from Dragons scrum-half Buckland.

Up front, hooker Dom Booth returns to start ahead of the Dragons’ Griffiths who drops back down to the bench, while second row James Fender comes in for the injured Jac Price.

Despite the opening two losses, Williams believes his side have learned important lessons along the way, particularly after outscoring Ireland in the second half of last week’s match.

"You could see in the second half against Ireland, where we put that element of pressure rugby into place, we got good value out of it,” said Williams.

“If we could have done that on a few more occasions in the first half that game would have gone down to the wire.

"France have been flag bearers over the last few years in this age group – we look forward to bringing them to Colwyn Bay to face the challenge of going up against them.

"We are aware of what’s coming but I hope the disappointment from the Ireland game will drive our boys on as that could have been much closer if we hadn’t committed errors in the first half.

“Ultimately, we just want to keep putting ourselves into those positions."

France lost their opening fixture 29-24 to England before beating Italy 31-19.

Elsewhere, Italy host Scotland and unbeaten duo England and Ireland meet at Franklin's Gardens in Northampton.

Wales U20: J Beetham (Cardiff Blues); F Jones (Aberavon), B Roderick (Ospreys), A Owen (Dragons), M Grady (Cardiff Blues); S Costelow (Leicester Tigers), E Bevan (Cardiff Met); T Bevacqua (Cardiff Blues), D Booth (Scarlets), B Warren (Cardiff Blues), J Fender (Ospreys), B Carter (Dragons), I Davies (Cardiff Blues), Jac Morgan (Scarlets – capt), M Strong (Ospreys).

Reps: W Griffiths (Dragons), C Williams (Scarlets), A Griffin (Bath Rugby), R Thomas (Ospreys), G Bradley (Cardiff Blues), D Buckland (Dragons), J Hawkins (Ospreys), J Thomas (Ospreys).