Wayne Pivac has made four changes to his Wales side as they look to bounce back against France following defeat to England at Twickenham.
Here's what the Welsh boss had to say about his selection and the challenge ahead...
READ MORE: Wales hit back at criticism over their handling of Francis
Talk us through the back-row, bringing Seb Davies and Josh Navidi into the mix?
“Josh has done it before. He did it against Ireland last year when he had no club rugby under his belt.
"Certain players can do it and step up and he’s one of them. The year before, he came back against England. We’d planned for 55 minutes and he played the full 80.
"We know he can do it. He ticked some boxes in the Cardiff game and made sure the shoulder was ok.
"He’s ready to go. We’re very pleased to have him back.
"Seb’s a guy that we’ve been giving little cameos to off the bench. We’ve looked at the opposition we’re playing and how we played against England.
"We’re wanting to reduce our error count and get our discipline right. He also offers us something different with our balance at lineout time.
"Also. he’s got a good skill set when he’s on the edges. In attack, he gives us another weapon.”
It's another different back-row - is that experimentation something you’re looking at it ahead of next season?
“A lot of it has been forced on us with injuries.
"Justin Tipuric is out. Navs has been out. Faletau has been out. Dan Lydiate is out. A lot of players have been unavailable.
"We’d like some continuity in selection and that’ll happen as we get closer to the World Cup. There’s only a couple of tweaks in this squad and the rest were forced on us, like Nick Tompkins.
"He sustained a concussion last week and we haven’t pushed him. We took him out of the selection process."
Will Tompkins be available for Italy?
“It will be about 14 days by then, so we’re hopeful he should be right by Italy.
"He’ll go through the same stringent process the others have gone through.”
What's the reason behind starting Gareth Thomas over Wyn Jones?
“We think he deserves a go. He’s gone well off the bench and made an impact.
"The French are a big, physical side and if you look at the first-half and second-half, Gareth contributed in the collisions. We’ll need big collisions on the weekend.
"We’ve just spun them around. Wyn will come on and will be eager to put in a good performance when he comes on.”
You've lost two tight games to France so far in charge of Wales - do you feel you owe them one?
“I’ve got to say, they’ve been two of the most enjoyable matches I’ve been involved in.
"They’ve been great games, but unfortunately we’ve come out on the wrong side of the result in two tight games.
"We don’t have to think far back to the game going for the Grand Slam last year. The last minute play robbed us of that and the disappointment is still in the minds.
"There’s been two great games so far and hopefully it’ll be another great game this Friday.”
There's still some tickets left. How important is a full house to your team?
“It does help. If it means that there’s a few French supporters haven’t come over because of Covid, it won’t worry us too much as long as there’s enough Welsh there!
"But no, there’s a few seats left and it’d be great to fill them up. The sides want to play entertaining brand of rugby and you’ve got a team who are probably the in-form side in the world.
"We’ve had great games against them and I think it’ll be a cracker.”
Will the roof be open or closed?
“Until told otherwise, it’ll be open. We’ve certainly asked the question.
"It’s something we’ll talk to the Welsh Government about.”
Professor John Fairclough said to start Tomas Francis would be making a "grave mistake". Does a statement like that fill you with any reservations, considering it's come from a leading surgeon?
“No disrespect to the gentleman you’re alluding to, we’re going with experts in concussion.
"I know he was a leading surgeon in another area of the body, I think. We’re doing everything in our power that we can do. The decision has not been taken lightly.
"We always say that the players’ safety and well-being is at the forefront of these decisions.
"That’s why we go to the experts in this field to get all the information possible.”
It was also suggested that the incident clearly showed the regulations aren’t fit for purpose. Do you feel that's the case?
“There’s a review looking into that. I didn’t see the incident live, only in post, and all those things will be part of the review.
"I think they are fit for purpose until they’re changed as it’s the one we’ve all been working with for some time.
"Many experts are involved in putting those processes in place.”
There were some who thought Jonathan Davies' days were numbered - does this selection show he still has a future in the side?
“Nick Tompkins is playing well, but he’s unavailable for selection.
"Jonathan’s done well off the bench in the last few games. Probably for this game, we might have gone with the same selection but that decision wasn’t made because of injury.
"Jon is reliable for us. We look at what he’s doing in a Welsh shirt and what he did for us in France last year, he had a very strong game in Paris.
"At 12, we think he still has a lot of rugby left in him. He brings a lot of experience, obviously."
How close is Louis Rees-Zammit to regaining his starting spot?
“Well, I’m very happy with the two who started last time. I thought they did a great job.
"Louis went back to his club and scored a great try off the bench. Hopefully he’ll do something similar on Friday."
It seems that Antoine Dupont will be fit to start - were you hoping that wasn't the case?
“We don’t tend to single out individual players, but you can’t help but do that because he’s world-class.
"Probably the form player in the world. You find yourself saying ‘well done’ under your breath with some of the things he does. He’s great to watch.
"Hopefully we’ll be able to contain him as he’s world-class.”
Where does this selection leave Taine Basham after an impressive start to Test rugby?
"It's one selection in a number. He is a young player who has played a lot of big games in a row.
"He just made a few errors in that last game. We've spoken about that. Taine was very open and honest. He is working very hard at his game, because he wants to keep improving every match.
"We've got a guy like Navs who is available, and so we feel it is a good time to freshen Taine up.
"It's fit for purpose for this particular round, and we will wait and see what we do next week."
Does Nick Tompkins' unavailability highlight why you want players plying their trade in Wales, not England?
"It's happened to other players in previous Six Nations during our tenure where players have picked up the odd bump and missed games.
"It's part and parcel if you do play in the English Premiership that you don't have the ability to have a break during the competition.
"The club have seen what form he is in and rightly so, from their point of view, put him out there, and he picked up a bump."
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