Wales travel to face Scotland in their Six Nations Round 2 fixture on Saturday (4.45pm); Warren Gatland makes five changes after his side lost 34-10 to Ireland in Cardiff; Dafydd Jenkins replaces Alyn Wyn Jones, Christ Tshiunza, Tommy Reffell in for Justin Tipuric, Taulupe Faletau
Thursday 9 February 2023 12:34, UK
Warren Gatland has made five changes to his side to face Scotland in Round 2 of the Six Nations, with young trio Dafydd Jenkins, Christ Tshiunza and Tommy Reffell replacing Alun Wyn Jones, Justin Tipuric and Taulupe Faletau.
The other changes see Dillon Lewis come in for the injured Tomas Francis (calf) at tighthead, and Wyn Jones return to start at loosehead in place of Gareth Thomas.
Wales were well beaten in Gatland's Cardiff homecoming last week by Ireland, as Andy Farrell's charges registered a bonus-point 34-10 win at the Principality Stadium, leaving Wales in need of a response this week.
Second row Jones, 37, and flanker Tipuric, 33, have been left out of the matchday squad entirely, while 32-year-old back-row Faletau is named among the replacements.
Exeter lock Jenkins, 21, comes in for his first Wales start, while club team-mate Tshiunza starts at blindside flanker for his Six Nations debut. Leicester's 23-year-old back-row Reffell starts at openside, with Ospreys' Jac Morgan switching to No 8 to accommodate the two new flankers.
The backline is unchanged, with full-back Leigh Halfpenny absent again after a back spasm caused him to withdraw late last week for Liam Williams.
Wings Josh Adams and Rio Dyer, centres George North - who has shaken off a knock to start - and Joe Hawkins - impressive last week in his first Test start - scrum-half Tomos Williams and fly-half Dan Biggar all remain in the side.
Ken Owens captains Wales from hooker again, with lock Adam Beard the only other survivor in the pack other than Morgan.
Among the replacements, uncapped Ospreys second row Rhys Davies is in line for his Test debut.
"We've made some changes but tried to keep some continuity with the same backline," Gatland said on Thursday.
"Wyn [Jones] has been working really hard in the last three weeks in camp and he gets an opportunity. Then Dafydd Jenkins comes into the second row, looking a bit to the future. Christ Tshiunza as well. We're looking at options at No 8 if Faletau picks up an injury who's going to cover there, so Jac gets that chance.
"We thought we created opportunities last week but we weren't clinical enough in terms of finishing off some of those chances. We need to start better.
"We gave away some stupid penalties and unforced penalties when we weren't really under a lot of pressure so that's again been an area that we've spoken about. We've tried to focus on the positives and the things that we can address ourselves.
"Scotland have some experience in that squad, so it's going to be a great encounter and it's a good test of the improvements that we can make from the things that we need to tidy up from last week."
Wales: 15 Liam Williams, 14 Josh Adams, 13 George North, 12 Joe Hawkins, 11 Rio Dyer, 10 Dan Biggar, 9 Tomos Williams, 1 Wyn Jones, 2 Ken Owens (c), 3 Dillon Lewis, 4 Dafydd Jenkins, 5 Adam Beard, 6 Christ Tshiunza, 7 Tommy Reffell, 8 Jac Morgan.
Replacements: 16 Scott Baldwin, 17 Rhys Carre, 18 Leon Brown, 19 Rhys Davies, 20 Taulupe Faletau, 21 Rhys Webb, 22 Rhys Patchell, 23 Alex Cuthbert.
