Wales have made three changes for Friday’s game with Ireland in Dublin as they bid to end their 14-game losing streak in the Six Nations.
Fly-half Dan Edwards, who started the opening two games against England and France, comes in for the injured Sam Costelow.
Back-rower James Botham replaces the injured Taine Plumtree to make his first start in this season’s tournament, with Alex Mann switching to blindside flanker to accommodate his Cardiff colleague, while Ellis Mee comes onto the wing for Gabriel Hamer-Webb, who made his Test debut in the narrow loss to Scotland.
Head coach Steve Tandy said: “There are a couple of enforced changes this week due to injury and then Ellis had played well in the opening couple of rounds, so we feel he deserves the opportunity again.
“This week it’s about backing up the performance against Scotland. Going away from home is a different type of environment for our group, but the focus for us is really improving on what we did last game.
“I thought the defence against Scotland was much improved so we definitely want to double down on that going to Ireland.
“You see how they keep the ball in possession, they play lots of passes so we know we’re going to have to build and improve from the other week.”
Scrum-half Tomos Williams will be alongside Edwards, with Joe Hawkins and Eddie James the centre pairing, while Josh Adams, Mee and full-back Louis Rees-Zammit make up the back three.
Aaron Wainwright has been passed fit to play at No 8 with Botham and Alex Mann the loose trio at the back of the scrum.
Dafydd Jenkins and Ben Carter are the lock pairing, and hooker Dewi Lake, who also captains the side, has props Rhys Carre and Tomas Francis either side of him.
Exciting young Welsh talent potential debut
Louie Hennessey has been an exciting young talent for Bath and Wales U20s
Tandy could also hand a debut to 21-year-old Louie Hennessey, who plays for Bath, off the bench after he was named in the match-day 23.
“Louie was unfortunate not to get his opportunity in the autumn, but he’s trained really well,” Tandy said.
“He had a bit of a bump on his hand at the start of this campaign, but the way he’s recovered and put in performances in the training environment has been very impressive.”
Ireland have dominated recent meetings with Wales, winning eight of the last nine matches, with Wales having not won in Dublin since 2015.
Welsh team to face Ireland
Starting XV: 15 Louis Rees-Zammit, 14 Ellis Mee, 13 Eddie James, 12 Joe Hawkins, 11 Josh Adams, 10 Dan Edwards, 9 Tomos Williams; 1 Rhys Carre, 2 Dewi Lake (c), 3 Tomas Francis, 4 Dafydd Jenkins, 5 Ben Carter, 6 Alex Mann, 7 James Botham, 8 Aaron Wainwright.
Replacements: 16 Ryan Elias, 17 Nicky Smith, 18 Archie Griffin, 19 Adam Beard, 20 Olly Cracknell, 21 Kieran Hardy, 22 Jarrod Evans, 23 Louie Hennessey.
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