Wales make it an openside double
WALES have named two opensides in Ellis Jenkins and James Davies to face Argentina in the final Test of their summer tour in Santa Fe tomorrow night.
Jenkins was frustrated after he was left out of the match-day squad for the victory over the Pumas in San Juan last weekend, having starred in Wales’ win over South Africa in Washington DC seven days earlier.
Wales boss Warren Gatland stayed true to his promise of giving everyone a chance and Davies, who wore the No.7 jersey in Jenkins’ absence, put in IN ARGENTINA WITH WALES a man-of-the-match performance as the competition in the back row reached new levels. Unable to separate the pair of them for the final Test, the two players will start in the same back row with Jenkins wearing No.6 a role that he has performed for Cardiff Blues in the past.
Ross Moriarty gets his third start of the tour at No.8.
“It was pretty hard to leave either of them out, given they’ve produced man-of-the-match performances in their first two games,” Gatland said.
“It’s something that we’ve done in the past.
“To be able to play two sevens, you’ve got to have your tight five performing well and we’re pretty happy with our tight five but we’ve made a couple of changes there.
“That tight five need to front up to allow us the luxury of having them in the starting line up.
“We were very good at the breakdown, defensively we were really strong but it’s going to be another step up this week.”
Elsewhere in the pack, Adam Beard and Cory Hill retain their places in the second row, with the Dragons man keeping the captain’s armband for a second week in a row.
In the front row, hooker Ryan Elias and tight-head prop Tomas Francis have been brought in for their first starts of the trip with Elliot Dee and Dillon Lewis, who have impressed on tour, dropping to the bench. Rob Evans goes again at loosehead.
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