Wayne Pivac has named his squad for the autumn internationals, with five uncapped players featuring in the 35-man squad.
Here's everything the Wales coach had to say...
You're missing a number of players through injury, including your captain Dan Biggar. How big a blow is that?
"We hadn’t planned on changing the captain, but obviously with Dan’s injury, that’s something we’ll look at in the coming days. It’s been an interesting squad selection with a number of injuries, but with that comes opportunity.
"With Dan, we’d expect him to be playing by the end of the autumn series, but of course the last game is against Australia so that rules him out. We haven’t selected him on that basis, but we don’t expect him to be out too long."
When will a decision be made on a new captain? Are there many candidates?
"There are a few candidates. For different reasons, we could go in a few different ways.
"We just want to see who comes through club rugby this week and then we’ll name it internally. There’ll be a captain for the series, but four Test matches is a big ask these days for anyone to start in all four.
"So there might be more than one but we’ll have a captain and vice-captain."
How will you manage without Biggar?
"He’s been a major part since the new coaching group has been in place. He’s played the majority of the games.
"He offers a lot, not just on the park but off it as well. Anyone who has played 100 Test matches does that.
"He’s a big loss, but Gareth was his understudy on the summer tour, if you like. He played very well in that second Test, the famous victory there.
"It’s an opportunity for him. He’s coming off a knock, but hopefully he’ll be alright.
"It was an interesting selection to see who would partner up with Gareth, with the injuries we have in the back-three as well. If you take Liam Williams out and Leigh Halfpenny coming back from not a lot of rugby, we’re making sure we’ve got players who can play more than one position.
"We’ve selected two 10 who can play 15 and Rhys Priestland is currently playing 15 - it gives us that extra bit of back-up. Then when you look at another 10 in terms of Sam Costelow against Callum Sheedy for example.
"If we selected Callum, he goes back (to England) after a Tuesday. That counted against him and I’ve had that discussion with him.
"Sam is a young guy that we’ve had in the environment a couple of times before. We invite young players in from time to time and he’s done exceptionally well in the environment.
"It’s another opportunity for Sam to grow and learn a bit more. We’ll see whether game time comes for these young players, but we’ll play that by ear."
Talk us through the five uncapped players - starting with the Scarlets trio of Josh Macleod, Dane Blacker and Sam Costelow?
"It was really, really cruel on Josh. He’s been selected in the squad twice.
"Once, he was injured with his club the week before camp and he wasn’t able to join us. Of course, he was named in the team on a Tuesday, had the accolades of his team-mates applauding him and was then stretchered off the field an hour later with a ruptured Achilles.
"To see him back on the field playing, he’s a player we want back in the environment. He can play all three back-row positions.
"We’ll have a good look at him up close. We feel he deserves this opportunity.
"This is the time to have a look. Six Nations and beyond we know what is coming, and that’s all about winning tournaments.
"We’ve been monitoring a lot of half-backs for a long time outside of the three we’ve used recently. Gareth with 67-odd Test matches, we know what he can and can’t do.
"It’s an opportunity to have a look at Dane. We feel he’s been playing well last season and he’s done well in the cameos this year.
"We’ll look at him up close. Rhys Webb is playing well, but we know what he and Gareth can do."
What about Rio Dyer and Joe Hawkins?
"When we looked at the midfield, we’ve got three of the four that we took to South Africa. Unfortunately, Johnny Williams, who was playing well at the time, is injured.
"We’ve had a chat with Jonathan Davies and we know everything he can do. For Joe, it’s a chance to get into this environment and look at the work required to play at this level.
"We think he’s an exciting young talent. He’s done very well with the U20s, he’s a leader.
"He can play 10 and can bring a skillset to that inside centre position that not all our players have. He’s one for the future. We’ll have a very good look at him.
"Rio trained with us before we went to South Africa, along with Ryan Conbeer. We know a lot about those two.
"He just gets the nod as he’s got exceptional pace, a great step and acceleration. You saw that in a few games this year for the Dragons.
"He did well in our internal match before South Africa. He’s good in the air and that’s huge at Test level."
Has the fact you've worked with MacLeod in the past given him the edge over someone like Thomas Young?
“They are two different players. One covers the back-row and one’s a seven.
“Thomas was up against Tommy Reffell and Jac Morgan and we’ve gone with the other two. I think if you look at the Josh Navidi type of player we think in Josh Macleod he’s potentially that type of player, and also Justin Tipuric can play more than just seven.
“I think he can play six and he can play eight at a pinch as well.”
You've pointed out Dyer's aerial game - is that where Keelan Giles fell short?
“They are both very quick and explosive. Rio has got a little bit more size.
“In the modern game there‘s no getting away from it there’s a lot of big blokes out on the park. They are both quick.
“One is playing on the left and one is playing on the right. We will look at the make-up of the squad, where we go, and the experience, also the difference between club rugby and test rugby.
“In terms of test rugby we’ve given him the nod.”
Rhys Carre and Ross Moriarty can count themselves as unlucky to miss out. What was the reasoning there?
Two phone calls last night. Rhys went to South Africa and was giving a brief coming back on what we expected in terms of general conditioning and getting in the right shape to play international rugby.
"He’s fallen short of that. He’s got a lot of hard work to do with his club.
"He’s had big moments which is clear for everyone to see. But at Test rugby, it’s about 60 minutes or 20 minutes of intense rugby.
"The levels of conditioning you have to get to in order to survive in our camps, he hasn’t quite reached.
"In terms of Ross, it was a tough conversation because Ross has just come back from injury. He’s a hard-nosed player and we all know what he’s done in 50-odd Tests.
"Again, this was the last opportunity for us to have a look at others. We’ve got some quality players who will miss out but it’s not as if we’ve selected this squad to find out if Ross is good enough to play Test rugby.
"We know he is good. His target is the Six Nations. We’ve asked him to ask on a couple of things in his game which he’ll go away and work hard on."
What do you make of the Wales squad? Have your say in the comments below
Is this the last chance for players to impress before the experiment ends?
“The experiment has ended on the park, and we said that after Italy, and you saw that in South Africa. You’ll also see that in this series when we are putting out strong teams.
“We’ve got a squad of 36 or 37 players and we’ll probably bring another young one in to train with us. It’s also about development and you don’t have to play rugby for it to be about development.
“There’s a stage from playing club footy or being a top age grade player, and then getting in and rubbing shoulders with the big boys in training. A lot is learnt there as well in terms of the intensity of the training sessions which, to be quite honest, are probably double that of a club training session.
“The players are really tested physically and mentally in these training sessions so players learn a lot and that sets them up for future campaigns. There’s a bit of the here and now with players.
“If you go through the list and work out who you think would be in the starting team, and then there’s a group of players coming in who will hopefully be big players for Wales in the very very near future.”
Is it a case of young players not getting another chance before the World Cup if you didn't bring them in now?
“Yes, that’s very much part of it but also this time around there’s injuries. We’ve got another round of games to go so touch wood.
“So leading into a World Cup, and we’ve seen in previous World Cup’s, Gareth Anscombe being a classic example, and Rhys Webb in the past along with other players who have been injured in the warm-up games and haven’t got on to the aeroplane.
“We are sort of planning for the worst case scenarios if you like. We don’t have some matches like Ireland taking teams to South Africa and other teams are playing the Barbarians and other matches.
“This is an opportunity for us to have a look at some of these guys who may be called upon, and if not will be in a good space post the World Cup when there’s normally a bit of a change over in personnel.”
Has Louis Rees-Zammit been named as a full-back?
“No. That’s probably alphabetical (in the team announcement).
“Louis we know can play full-back, Josh Adams can play full-back. Rhys Priestland is playing full-back for his club so we have a few options here but he’s certainly one of the options.”
How good is it to have the experience of Justin Tipuric, Ken Owens and Leigh Halfpenny back?
“Really good. There’ll be some more gametime available this week.
“Leigh Halfpenny has steadily been getting better and better. A lot of people don’t see his positional play, the little things in wide rucks, maintaining possession, getting in early scanning, securing ball for us.
“His goal kicking is obviously going really well, and he’s just getting tidier and tidier each week as he’s getting his confidence back. I think you’ll see him growing.
“Tips is a class player, and I’ve no doubt he’ll be firing ready to go in time for these internationals. With Ken you can see in his game the frustration of where the Scarlets have been.
“He’s throwing himself about. Each outing he’s had in training he’ll get better and better.
“They are all quality players and bring a lot of experience to the squad.”
Has there been a better time to play the All Blacks?
“I wanted to play them in 2020 but covid prevented that at a time where we were really keen. Last year it was outside the window so that played a factor, and we had a lot missing with injuries.
“We love playing the All Blacks it’s a fantastic game, there’ll be a sell-out crowd I have no doubt, the atmosphere is going to be like it was pre-covid with the bands and all the excitement.
“I’m really looking forward to it. I know the players are looking forward to it and it’s an opportunity to create history.
“We were hell bent on doing that in South Africa and we’ll love to create some history in that (NZ) match. We’ve got a couple of weeks to prepare for that come Monday.”
Are New Zealand vulnerable after that tour defeat to Ireland?
“That was a couple of months ago. We review every club game on a Monday or Tuesday and then we go back over the All Blacks, Australia, South Africa, and Argentina series.
“We looked at that All Blacks v Australia game. The pace of the game… it was a different game to what we are playing at the moment.
“We’ve got a hell of an adjustment period in two weeks just to play with the intensity and the speed they play at. Australia as well.
“They put 40 on Australia and 50 on Argentina. I think since the changes they’ve made in their back-room staff and they’ve settled on a squad it looks a pretty exciting squad to me.
“Any team that can put 50 and 40 on those two sides are probably going to be a dangerous animal.”
What's the difference between getting called up officially and just being in training?
“A lot more kit! It’s one thing to be invited in as a youngster and you know you are there to learn.
“To actually be named in the squad you are one step closer to getting out on the pitch. All those players who have been selected will come in as senior Welsh rugby players.
“It’s up to them to take it to the next stage which is to play very well in the camp environment. They’ll get that opportunity starting Monday.”
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