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Wales Online
Wales Online
Sport
Ben James

Wales announce new captain as Justin Tipuric surprised by Pivac request

Justin Tipuric will captain Wales in the upcoming autumn campaign.

The Ospreys openside, who is returning to Test rugby after a considerable lay-off with injury, has skippered his club side for the past few seasons, and will now lead his country in the absence of Dan Biggar.

Biggar, who has captained Wales through 2022, has been ruled out of the autumn through injury. As a result, Pivac has been forced to find a new leader in his squad.

Read more: Wales press conference live as injury updates given ahead of All Blacks Test

Tipuric has captained Wales on two previous occasions, against Uruguay in 2019 and Georgia a year later. His last match in a Wales jersey came against France in the 2021 Six Nations, having suffered a serious injury at the start of the Lions tour later that year.

"I'm obviously honoured," Tipuric said. "I didn't quite expect it to be honest.

"I'm just happy to be back in the squad. To have the responsibility to leading such a great bunch of boys out on the field is one of the highlights of my career."

Pivac has resisted the temptation to turn back to previous skipper Alun Wyn Jones, who had been his captain up until this year.

Jones had taken over the captaincy from Sam Warburton in 2017 following the openside's retirement. However, after suffering a shoulder injury last autumn, the captaincy was ultimately taken over throughout 2022 by Biggar.

Dragons captain Will Rowlands had been earmarked as a possible skipper by former Wales centre Jamie Roberts, but Pivac ruled out the lock after naming his squad last week.

His second-row partner Adam Beard, having served as vice captain, had also been championed by another ex-Wales player, Sam Warburton. The two-time Lions openside, who is Wales' most-capped captain, called the Ospreys lock a "quite strong choice".

"Adam Beard seems to me to be a quite strong choice as he's been given that role before," he told WalesOnline last week. "He calls lineouts and is used to that responsibility. He's 26 years old. He's not young. He's got a World Cup and a Lions tour under his belt. He calls all the lineouts for the Ospreys and has a big leadership role there.

Pivac and Tipuric will face the media later today and you can follow that in our live blog.

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