CARDIFF (Reuters) – Centre Joe Roberts will make his Wales debut after being named to start in their World Cup warm-up rematch with England at Twickenham on Saturday, while Keiran Williams and Kemsley Mathias could get a first run off the bench.
Coach Warren Gatland has made wholesale changes to the side that defeated England 20-9 in Cardiff last weekend, giving a run to several fringe players ahead of the announcement of his squad for the World Cup in France, which starts next month.
Roberts, 23 will partner Nick Tompkins at centre, while the back three is made up of fullback Liam Williams and wings Josh Adams and Tom Rogers.
Owen Williams will start at flyhalf and is partnered by namesake Tomos Williams at scrumhalf.
Stand-in captain Dewi Lake takes over at hooker from the injured Ryan Elias, while either side of him will be props Gareth Thomas and Tomas Francis. Rhys Davies and Adam Beard make up the second row.
Taine Plumtree gets a start at number eight, while Dan Lydiate and Tommy Reffell are on the side of the scrum.
“There’s an opportunity for another group of players who weren’t involved last week,” Gatland said. “There’s some great competition within the squad.
“I was pretty pleased with the team performance and the result last week – it wasn’t perfect but there’s a chance now for this group to go out Saturday and to put down their own marker.
“We’re in a bit of transition, so in the back of my mind I was thinking we are building not only for the next few months but also starting to think about what we need to do with the next cycle of players going forwards towards 2027.”
Centre Keiran Williams and prop Mathias are likely to earn a first cap off the bench, which also includes experienced flyhalf Dan Biggar.
Wales team:
15. Liam Williams, 14. Josh Adams, 13. Joe Roberts, 12. Nick Tompkins, 11. Tom Rogers, 10. Owen Williams, 9. Tomos Williams, 1. Gareth Thomas, 2. Dewi Lake, 3. Tomas Francis, 4. Rhys Davies, 5. Adam Beard, 6. Dan Lydiate, 7. Tommy Reffell, 8. Taine Plumtree
Replacements: 16. Sam Parry, 17. Kemsley Mathias, 18. Dillon Lewis, 19. Christ Tshiunza, 20. Taine Basham, 21. Kieran Hardy, 22. Dan Biggar, 23. Keiran Williams
(Reporting by Nick Said; Editing by Ken Ferris)
