Wales boss Warren Gatland has made seven changes to his starting XI for Saturday’s Guinness Six Nations clash with England at Twickenham.
Center forward George North returns from injury for his 50th Six Nations appearance, partnering Nick Tompkins in midfield.
In Wales’ 27-26 loss to Scotland last weekend, Sam Costello was absent through injury in the first half and was replaced by Ewan Lloyd, with Tomos Williams in the scrum half. .
Gatland has also selected a new front row of Gareth Thomas, Elliot Dee and Keiron Asirati, with Cardiff City wing Alex Mann coming on as a substitute against Scotland After scoring a try, he made his first start for Wales.
Unused Bath player Archie Griffin has been named to the bench, joined by Racing 92 lock Will Rowlands. Rowlands joined up with the Wales squad earlier this week after his partner recently gave birth to a baby, while Dragons’ Tyne Basham and Chai Evans – the son of former Wales captain Ian Evans Son)’s replacement also has a chance.
quick guide
Wales
exhibit
15-Cameron Wynette, 14-Josh Adams, 13-George North, 12-Nick Tompkins, 11-Leo Dell, 10-Ion Lloyd, 9 -Tomos Williams; 1-Gareth Thomas, 2-Elliot Dee, 3-Kelon Achillati, 4-Dafydd Jenkins (captain), 5-Adam· Beard, 6-Alex Mann, 7-Tommy Reiffel, 8-Aaron Wainwright
alternatives: 16-Ryan Elias, 17-Corey Domachowski, 18-Archie Griffin, 19-Will Rowlands, 20-Taina Basham, 21-Kee Lan Hardy, 22-Cai Evans, 23-Mason Grady
North has returned from a shoulder injury and is ready to face England, with Lloyd now starting after making an outstanding contribution after replacing Costello against Scotland.
Mann was expected to be promoted to the starting lineup after Botham left the team with a knee injury. Meanwhile, Williams, Dee and Asirati all made significant contributions after coming on for their second 40 minutes last Saturday.
Wales have not beaten England in the Six Nations at Twickenham since 2012, when center Scott Williams’ late strike confirmed a Treble-winning victory. After defeating England away from home in the 2015 World Cup, Wales lost seven consecutive games to strong opponents at Twickenham.
Wales made a stunning comeback in the second half from 27 points behind Scotland to score 26 points, although this could not overshadow their poor performance up to that point.
Gatland said: “We’ve been very critical and very hard on ourselves this week.
“The first half was far from the standard we expected. We simply cannot start the same way this Saturday.
“We showed what we can do in the second half against Scotland. Now we have to build on the performance and maintain a certain rhythm from the start. We made some changes to the starting lineup this weekend and that gives opportunities to the players who come on. We need to be accurate and maintain our discipline.
“This is a massive game, not only because of its history and what it means to everyone in Wales, but also an opportunity to get things further on track. England are in a rebuilding phase. We will go in with confidence There, we can build on what we did in the second half.”
