Wales Team to Face Samoa Announced

Ryan Jones will lead Wales for a record 29th time, in the Dove Men Series clash with Samoa at the Millennium Stadium tonight (Friday, Kick-off 7.30pm). Jones takes the record from Ieuan Evans and is handed the armband after squad captain Sam Warburton has been moved to the bench in one of five changes to the forward pack made for the visit of the South Sea Islanders.

A total of eight changes have been made to the starting line-up which went down to Argentina in the series opener, with three of those enforced through injury and the rest largely due to a desire from the coaches to make full use of their squad for the series.

“With a short six day turnaround it was important for us to freshen things up and also make use of the competition for places we have within this squad, something which has been a key ingredient for the success of the squad over the last 18 months,” said Wales interim head coach Rob Howley.

“In making changes we also needed to bring in some genuine experience. It is important to have leaders throughout the team and we are hoping the likes of Mike Phillips, who made a positive impact last week, can bring his experience to the side.

“We know we are under pressure to perform and that pressure is greatest from within. This squad has shown in the past that we have the character and resilience to get back to winning ways. We have every confidence that we will come back strongly on Friday night.”

WALES SQUAD

Leigh Halfpenny; Alex Cuthbert, Ashley Beck, Jamie Roberts, George North; Dan Biggar, Mike Phillips; Paul James, Richard Hibbard, Aaron Jarvis, Bradley Davies, Ian Evans, Ryan Jones (Capt), Justin Tipuric, Toby Faletau

REPLACEMENTS: Ken Owens, Gethin Jenkins, Scott Andrews, Luke Charteris, Sam Warburton, Tavis Knoyle, Rhys Priestland, Scott Williams