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Wales Online
Wales Online
Sport
Ben James

Warren Gatland rips up pack to face Scotland as Alun Wyn Jones and Justin Tipuric left out completely

Warren Gatland has torn up his forwards pack as he made five personnel changes from the side that lost to Ireland, with Alun Wyn Jones and Justin Tipuric left out completely.

Taulupe Faletau drops to the bench, as Gatland opts for a back-row of Christ Tshiunza, Tommy Reffell and Jac Morgan, with the first two in line for their first Six Nations starts.

Despite former captain Jones being confirmed as fit earlier this week, Dafydd Jenkins comes into the starting side to partner Adam Beard in the second-row, while Rhys Davies is preferred to his Ospreys team-mate on the bench.

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In the front-row, Wyn Jones and Dillon Lewis are brought into the starting side alongside captain Ken Owens. Perhaps unsurprisingly, given how the problems against Ireland were in the pack, Gatland has opted for an unchanged backline which started the 34-10 defeat.

On the bench, Leon Brown comes in as tight-head cover, while Rhys Patchell covers fly-half.

In dropping the trio of Jones, Tipuric and Faletau from the starting side, Gatland has dispensed with 342 Wales caps and 18 Lions caps in a major change of tack from the heavily experienced side that started the Six Nations campaign last weekend.

Their replacements, Jenkins, Tshiunza and Reffell, have just a handful of caps between them, with Reffell the only one to start a Test match to date.

Moving to No. 8, Morgan has played in the position just seven times before: twice for the Ospreys in recent European victories over Montpellier and Leicester, and then five times for the U20s in 2019.

Wales: Liam Williams; Josh Adams, George North, Joe Hawkins, Rio Dyer; Dan Biggar, Tomos Williams; Wyn Jones, Ken Owens, Dillon Lewis, Adam Beard, Dafydd Jenkins, Christ Tshiunza, Tommy Reffell, Jac Morgan.

Replacements: Scott Baldwin, Rhys Carre, Leon Brown, Rhys Davies, Taulupe Faletau, Rhys Webb, Rhys Patchell, Alex Cuthbert.

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