Warren Gatland has named his final Wales side of the summer as he gets one last look at his players before selecting his 33-man squad for next month’s Rugby World Cup.
Wales face South Africa in Cardiff on Saturday and they will be led out again by Jac Morgan, who has been handed the captain’s armband for the second time after skippering the side in the first warm-up match against England.
As expected, 6ft 3in Scarlets man Johnny Williams lines up alongside 6ft 5in Cardiff star Mason Grady in one of Wales’ biggest ever centre partnerships as Gatland looks to up the physicality in midfield.
READ MORE: Live Wales reaction as Gatland names final team of summer
Alex Cuthbert – who missed the majority of Wales’ World Cup training camps through injury – has been handed a last-gasp audition for the tournament in France as he makes his first start of the summer, with the prolific try-scorer lining up in the back three alongside Rio Dyer and Liam Williams, who both featured against England.
Kieran Hardy is handed the No.9 jersey having been ruled out of last weekend’s contest due to family matters, with Dan Biggar earning his first start of the summer at fly-half after being publicly called out by Gatland earlier this week for his reaction to Owen Farrell’s highly controversial tackle at Twickenham.
In the front row, there are starting places for Corey Domachowski and Kieron Assiratti, who both win their second caps, while Elliot Dee is in at hooker for his first start of the summer.
Ben Carter and Will Rowlands pair up in the second row, while blindside Dan Lydiate and No. 8 Aaron Wainwright join Morgan in the back row.
Meanwhile, Teddy Williams and Cai Evans are in line to win their first senior Wales caps against the ‘Boks as they named among the replacements alongside Taine Basham who has come through concussion protocols after being on the receiving end of Farrell’s challenge last weekend.
“Preparations have gone well,” said Gatland after announcing the matchday 23. “We’re really pleased with the whole squad. We’re trying to build some depth within the team and there’s been a great atmosphere.
“In the first couple of games what was really pleasing for me was the physicality we brought and the way we defended. There are still things for us to work on in terms of being much more accurate.
“There’s been a lot of learning from that second England game and hopefully we put that into practice against South Africa. There’s another opportunity for this group of 23 players to put their hand up before we select the world cup squad.”
“We’re expecting confidence and physicality from South Africa,” he added. They don’t make a lot of mistakes. It’s a very experienced team for them. But we’ve got a great chance to go out there in front of a home crowd and produce some of the good things that we did in both the games against England. We just need to make sure we play for 80 minutes and are accurate for 80 minutes.”
Wales: 15. Liam Williams, 14. Alex Cuthbert, 13. Mason Grady, 12. Johnny Williams, 11. Rio Dyer, 10. Dan Biggar, 9. Kieran Hardy; 1. Corey Domachowski, 2. Elliot Dee, 3. Keiron Assiratti, 4. Ben Carter, 5. Will Rowlands, 6. Dan Lydiate, 7. Jac Morgan, 8. Aaron Wainwright
Replacements: 16. Sam Parry, 17. Nicky Smith, 18. Henry Thomas, 19. Teddy Williams, 20. Taine Basham, 21. Tomos Williams, 22. Max Llewellyn, 23. Cai Evans
