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Six changes for Wales including a new cap No8 and two bench rookies
Wayne Pivac has named a Wales team showing six changes to play Georgia this Saturday, including a debut at No8 for Josh Macleod following last Saturday’s successful war of attrition 20-13 victory over Argentina in Cardiff. There are also two uncapped players named on the bench, Dafydd Jenkins and Dane Blacker selected.
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This weekend’s game is the third in this November’s four-match schedule for the Welsh and the head coach has taken the opportunity to rotate his XV prior to the series final on November 26 at home to Australia, making three changes each to his starting backs and forwards.
In the backs, Owen Watkin, Josh Adams and Rhys Priestland are included in place of Nick Tompkins, Rio Dyer and Gareth Anscombe while in the pack, Ben Carter, Jac Morgan and Macleod are chosen in place of Will Rowlands, Dan Lydiate and Taulupe Faletau.
A WRU statement read: “Josh Macleod is in line to become the 1,182nd Wales senior men’s international having been selected at No8… On the Wales bench, there are two more players in the frame to make their senior international debut with Dafydd Jenkins, who joined Wales camp on Monday as an injury replacement, and Dane Blacker selected.
“Bradley Roberts is named as the replacement hooker and Taulupe Faletau provides the back row cover. Sam Costelow, who won his first cap against New Zealand on November 5, and Leigh Halfpenny are the other replacement backs.”
Pivac said: “Josh Macleod is a player that’s been really unfortunate in the past. We have wanted to use him on a couple of occasions, so this is very much the third time lucky for him. He covers the back row. We know a lot about him, I have coached him at the Scarlets. He brings a lot of energy, he is very strong over the ball and, in tandem with Jac Morgan, that will hopefully be a strong part of our game on the weekend.
“We’re looking forward to seeing him go at this level and seeing the physicality that he will bring. The spine of the team is there. It’s very much about the here and now, we have got a game to play against Georgia and we have to be successful. But there is also an eye to the Australia match.
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“Dafydd Jenkins is a young player that we have had an eye on for quite some time now. He has done well with the U20s and is doing very well at Exeter Chiefs. Talking to Rob Baxter, he is very happy with what Daf is doing. Daf captained that side last week so his leadership is valued and already in camp for a very short time he has picked everything up very quickly.
“We are excited to see him go. There are not many players like him in Wales and he is definitely a player for the future and one that we think this is the opportunity to have a look at him. Georgia are a side that will be not too dissimilar to Argentina in terms of the forward play, they’re very strong up front. Traditionally they have been good in the set piece, good driving lineout and very physical.”
Wales (vs Georgia, Saturday)
15. Louis Rees-Zammit (Gloucester Rugby – 21 caps)
14. Alex Cuthbert (Ospreys – 53 caps)
13. George North (Ospreys – 107 caps)
12. Owen Watkin (Ospreys – 35 caps)
11. Josh Adams (Cardiff Rugby 42 – caps)
10. Rhys Priestland (Cardiff Rugby – 54 caps)
9. Tomos Williams (Cardiff Rugby – 38 caps)
1. Gareth Thomas (Ospreys – 15 caps)
2. Ken Owens (Scarlets – 84 caps)
3. Dillon Lewis (Cardiff Rugby – 43 caps)
4. Ben Carter (Dragons – 7 caps)
5. Adam Beard (Ospreys – 39 caps)
6. Jac Morgan (Ospreys – 4 caps)
7. Justin Tipuric (Ospreys – 87 caps) captain
8. Josh Macleod (Scarlets – uncapped)
Replacements:
16. Bradley Roberts (Dragons – 2 caps)
17. Rhodri Jones (Dragons – 22 caps)
18. Sam Wainwright (Saracens – 3 caps)
19. Dafydd Jenkins (Exeter Chiefs – uncapped)
20. Taulupe Faletau (Cardiff Rugby – 93 caps)
21. Dane Blacker (Scarlets – uncapped)
22. Sam Costelow (Scarlets – 1 cap)
23. Leigh Halfpenny (Scarlets – 96 caps)
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Comments on RugbyPass
🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
27 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
1 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusades , you can keep going.
1 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
27 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
27 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
27 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
27 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
11 Go to comments