Wales Team Announced For Crucial South Africa Clash

Rob Howley will be without skipper Sam Warburton for Wales’ crucial clash with South Africa this weekend.

The flanker apparently picked up a ‘stinger’ injury to his shoulder in training on Thursday and will be replaced by Dan Lydiate who joins Ross Moriarty and Justin Tipuric in the back-row.

Howley has chosen to go with the same team that beat Argentina a couple of weeks back bar the change of Lydiate coming in for the injured Warburton.

Gethin Jenkins will resume the captaincy role while there is a place on the bench for Lions No.8 Taulupe Faletau even though he has played just 55 minutes of club rugby since returning from a knee injury.

“We were pleased with the win against Argentina so have gone with virtually the same team for South Africa,” said Rob Howley.

We’ve made just one change in the back-row. Sam (Warburton) picked up a bit of a stinger injury on Tuesday and isn’t quite ready so Dan comes in. Dan played particularly well against Japan so we are pleased he gets the opportunity again.

“It’s good to have Taulupe back in the squad, he will add a good impact from the bench. We are delighted with Sam, he showed individual composure and accuracy last weekend and he gets another opportunity on the bench, as he did against Australia.

“There is the tinge of disappointment in terms of performance against Japan and we want to put that right. Not only are we looking to win this weekend we want a performance to go with it.”

Jamie Roberts starts on the bench.

Wales: L Halfpenny; G North, J Davies, S Williams, L Williams; D Biggar, G Davies; G Jenkins (c), K Owens, T Francis; L Charteris, AW Jones; D Lydiate, J Tipuric, R Moriarty.

Replacements: S Baldwin, N Smith, S Lee, C Hill, T Faletau, L Williams, S Davies, J Roberts