venue: Principality Stadium, Cardiff date: Saturday, February 3rd kick off: 16:45 GMT |
coverage: It will be broadcast live on BBC One, S4C, BBC Radio Wales, BBC Radio Scotland and Radio Cymru, with live text on the BBC Sport website and app.Scrum V Highlights, Sunday, BBC Two Wales and online, on demand from 4 February |
Cardiff full-back Cameron Wynnett will make his Wales debut in Saturday's Six Nations opener against Scotland, but center George North will be absent due to injury.
North will be replaced by Owen Watkin, while flanker James Botham and prop Leon Brown will also be recalled.
Dafydd Jenkins becomes Wales' second youngest captain at 21 years and 60 days old.
Lock's partner is Adam Beard, along with Will Rowlands, who is not included in the 23-man squad.
Mr Rowlands has yet to partner with Wales after his wife gave birth to their child.
Scarlets fly-half Sam Costelow will make his first Six Nations appearance, with partner Gareth Davies preferred over in-form Tomos Williams.
Prop Gareth Thomas was absent, with loosehead Corey Domakowski also making his first Six Nations start.
Wales' 23-man squad includes nine Cardiff players, five of whom are on the substitute bench, including uncapped flanker Alex Mann.
Scotland have not won in Cardiff for 22 years and in 11 attempts.
Wales face Scotland: Winnet. Dyer, Watkin, Tompkins, Adams. Costelow, G. Davis. Domakowski, Elias, Brown, D. Jenkins (captain), Beard, Botham, Leffel, Wainwright.
Replacement: Dee, Mathias, Assilatti, Teddy Williams, Mann, Tomos Williams, I Lloyd, Grady.
fresh face
Wales are looking for a new full-back after Leigh Halfpenny and Liam Williams have dominated the number 15 shirt for more than a decade.
Halfpenny has retired from international rugby and Williams will be unavailable due to a contract with a Japanese club.
Wynnett, 21, has impressed for the club this season and was one of five new caps in the Gatland squad.
He suffered a jaw injury in the Champions Cup defeat to Harlequins in mid-January and was threatened to miss the opening few games, but he returned to training this week.
Wales head coach Warren Gatland said: “Cameron is a fantastic footballer and I think he will develop into a quality international player in the future.”
“He's young so there won't be any pressure on him. We're impressed with the way he trains.
“He has done well in training and after consulting with the surgeons, everyone was pleased that he had been selected.”
Winnett, in his 16th professional game, lines up in a back three alongside wingers Josh Adams and Rio Dyer, with Mason Grady sitting on the bench.
Following Dan Biggar's international retirement and Gareth Anscombe's injury, the number 10 shirt also needed to be filled.
Costelow was given the chance to return to the international stage for the first time in three years after Scarlets teammate Ioan Lloyd was benched.
More experience points are lost
Wales have lost key players in Alun Wyn Jones, Justin Tipuric, Ken Owens, Taulupe Faletau, Halfpenny, Biggar, Liam Williams and Dan Lydiate, who have nearly 1,000 caps between them. Ta.
Seven players remain from the team that started in the World Cup quarter-final defeat against Argentina in October 2023.
Losing center North, the third most capped player in Wales' history, will be a huge blow.
North, who has 118 caps, is just one away from making 50 Six Nations appearances and last year became the only Welshman to appear in four World Cup quarter-finals.
The 31-year-old suffered the problem during the Ospreys' Challenge Cup win over the Lions on January 21.
“George suffered a major shoulder injury and did not take part in full training last week, so Owen Watkin will take his place,” Gatland said.
Wales would have hoped that the World Cup duo of North and Nick Tompkins would be an area of continuity, with some major disruption.
Tompkins will now partner with Ospreys center Watkin. Watkin last played for Wales in the defeat against Georgia in November 2022. This partnership was the beginning of Wales' victory over Scotland in Cardiff in 2022.
3 is a magic number
With World Cup tighthead prop trio Dillon Lewis, Henry Thomas and Thomas Francis absent or not selected, there will always be a new face in Wales' No. 3 shirt.
Dragons prop Brown was nominated ahead of Keiron Assilatti for his 24th cap, joining Domakowski and Ryan Elias in the front row.
Brown's last start was against Argentina in July 2021, and he was a brief substitute in the Six Nations defeat to Scotland in February 2023.
New captain Jenkins will form a lock partnership with Adam Beard, with Teddy Williams serving as back-up in Rowlands' absence.
“Will hasn't joined the team yet,” Gatland said.
“His wife gave birth to a baby in France a few weeks ago and unfortunately there were some complications.
“So the message to him is, you stay home and be with your family. We talk all the time about how important that is. And he shows up when he's ready. Sho.”
Injuries to Jack Morgan, Faletau and Josh McLeod meant he could fill a back row spot alongside Aaron Wainwright and Tommy Leffell.
Cardiff flanker Botham has been selected as a blindside flanker, making his first appearance for Wales since July 2021 and his first tournament appearance.
The uncapped man is the preferred back row cover on the bench ahead of Mackenzie Martin and Tein Basham.
The starting five have just 130 caps, and the four forwards on the substitute bench have only 50 international caps, with hooker Elliott Dee having won 46 of them.