Same again as Howley names Wales side early

WALES have named an unchanged team to face France on Saturday, having brought the announcement forward by 24 hours.

For the second week in a row, coach Rob Howley has stuck with the same starting XV and the same replacements.

In the wake of the 22-9 victory over Ireland, Howley has handed his charges the opportunity to follow that up by ending the Six Nations on a high in Paris.

In-form hooker Ken Owens will win his 50th cap, six years on from making his Test debut at the 2011 World Cup.

Howley said: “I was delighted for the players at Friday’s result and performance and they deserve the opportunity to build on that in our final RBS 6 Nations encounter.

“The experience we showed and the intensity we brought to the match was hugely important and that will just as important as we face a good France team at home.

“We put pressure on ourselves and turned that pressure into a result. For us there are areas of the game we want to work on from Ireland and we have an opportunity to do that on Saturday and finish the campaign with another quality performance.

“The players who took to the field at Principality Stadium, deserve the opportunity to start and we were pleased with the impact from the bench so will be looking for the same this weekend.” Wales team to play France: Leigh Halfpenny; Liam Williams, Jonathan Davies, Scott Williams, George North; Dan Biggar, Rhys Webb; Rob Evans, Ken Owens, Tomas Francis, Jake Ball, Alun Wyn Jones, Sam Warburton, Ross Moriarty, Justin Tipuric. Replacements: Scott Baldwin, Nicky Smith, Samson Lee, Luke Charteris, Taulupe Faletau, Gareth Davies, Sam Davies, Jamie Roberts.