It’s Justin time after Tipuric gets the armband

JUSTIN Tipuric will captain Wales for the first time in tomorrow’s World Cup clash against Uruguay (0915BST).

Ospreys flanker Tipuric leads a team showing 13 changes from the side that beat Fiji on Wednesday, with only wing Josh Adams and centre Hadleigh Parkes remaining.

Adams, who scored a hat-trick of tries against Fiji, suffered a dead leg during that match, but is fit to resume.

Starting for the first time in this tournament will be players including wing Hallam Amos, centre Owen Watkin, scrum-half Aled Davies, lock Bradley Davies and a fit-again Adam Beard.

Ospreys second-row forward Beard returns to action a month after undergoing appendix surgery that delayed his arrival in Japan. Aaron Wainwright, who started Wales’ opening two World Cup games at blindside flanker, switches to number eight alongside Tipuric and Aaron Shingler.

Wales head coach Warren Gatland has opted for a split of six forwards and two backs on the replacements’ bench, with scrum-halves Gareth Davies and Tomos Williams providing back division cover.

Meanwhile, Gatland has also offered a reasonably positive update on key stars Dan Biggar and Jonathan Davies as the business end of the tournament hones into view.

“Dan’s symptom free, he’s being closely monitored by the medical team. He was symptom free the next day, which was great,” Gatland said when asked about Biggar.

“Jonathan took a knock on the knee, he’s being monitored as well.

“A few of the backs are sore and bruised from that physical encounter as you’d expect but apart from that, the forwards are in pretty good health, which is a positive.”

Victory for Wales against Uruguay would result in them topping Pool D with four successive wins – their best World Cup group stage performance since 1987.

It would also confirm a quarter-final appointment with Six Nations rivals France a week tomorrow.

■ More World Cup news:

Pages 44-47