Prop changes for Wales

Editor

Wales have made two enforced changes to their line-up that will face Italy on Saturday, as props Aaron Jarvis and Rob Evans come into the starting XV.

The duo replace injured players Samson Lee and Gethin Jenkins for the game in Rome, with Scott Andrews and Rhys Gill included on the bench this week.

Gloucester hooker Richard Hibbard is also ruled out and has his bench spot taken by Ken Owens while the only other change to the matchday 23 sees Scarlets back Gareth Davies take over from Mike Phillips as the back-up nine.

Wales go into their final game of the Six Nations knowing that they need to rack up the points in victory over the Azzurri to give themselves the best possible chance of winning the Championship by the end of Saturday's fixtures.

"Obviously it's disappointing for Gethin and Samson, but Rob and Aaron stepped up well last weekend and we expect the same on Saturday," head coach Warren Gatland told the press when announcing his Wales side.

"The challenge to us is to go to Italy and win, and try and win by a significant margin, but we know that's an extremely tough ask and the first job will be to simply get the result.

"Italy build their confidence around the scrum and line-out drive and that's an area we are going to have to compete strongly in at the start of the match."

Wales: 15 Leigh Halfpenny, 14 George North, 13 Jonathan Davies, 12 Jamie Roberts, 11 Liam Williams, 10 Dan Biggar, 9 Rhys Webb, 8 Taulupe Faletau, 7 Sam Warburton (c), 6 Dan Lydiate, 5 Alun-Wyn Jones, 4 Luke Charteris, 3 Aaron Jarvis, 2 Scott Baldwin, 1 Rob Evans.
Replacements: 16 Ken Owens, 17 Rhys Gill, 18 Scott Andrews, 19 Jake Ball, 20 Justin Tipuric, 21 Gareth Davies, 22 Rhys Priestland, 23 Scott Williams.

Date: Saturday, March 21
Kick-off: 13:30 local (12:30 GMT)
Venue: Stadio Olímpico, Rome
Referee: Chris Pollock (New Zealand)
Assistant referees: JP Doyle (England), Luke Pearce (England)
Television match official: Simon McDowell (Ireland)
Assessor: Donal Courtney (Ireland)