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Wales name team for France
By Online Editors
Wales have named their team to take on France on Friday evening in their opening match of the 2019 Six Nations.
Warren Gatland's will be captained by Alun Wyn Jones, making his 49th appearance in the tournament.
Jones lines up in the second-row alongside fellow Osprey Adam Beard with Josh Navidi returning from injury to start in the back-row alongside British & Irish Lions Justin Tipuric and Ross Moriarty.
In the front-row Rob Evans and Tomas Francis pack down alongside Ken Owens who becomes Wales’ most capped hooker, making his 61st appearance for his county.
Tomos Williams will make his first Six Nations appearance at scrum-half lining up alongside regional teammate Gareth Anscombe at fly-half.
Scarlets duo Hadleigh Parkes and Jonathan Davies continue their partnership in midfield with Josh Adams, George North and Liam Williams comprising the back-three.
Wales, who finished second in the tournament in 2018, face France in Paris on Friday before travelling to Rome to play Italy the weekend after. Warren Gatland’s team is currently on a nine match winning streak and Wales’ head coach knows the importance of starting their campaign well.
“We are looking forward to kicking off the Six Nations and kicking off our 2019 campaign as a whole,” said Wales head coach Warren Gatland.
“We come into the game on an impressive run of results but we know how tough it will be to face France in Paris in the tournament opener.
“It will be a huge contest but we are excited going into it. We have a great deal of experience across the team and on the bench and we want to kick things off well on Friday.”
Elliot Dee, Wyn Jones and Samson Lee provide Wales’ front-row replacements with Dragons pair Cory Hill and Aaron Wainwright completing the forward contingent. The experience continues on the bench with Gareth Davies, Dan Biggar and Owen Watkin providing the backline cover.
WALES TEAM TO PLAY FRANCE:
(Friday February 1st KO 21.00 Local, 20.00 UK – BBC ONE)
15. Liam Williams (51 Caps)
14. George North (79 Caps)
13. Jonathan Davies (68 Caps)
12. Hadleigh Parkes (11 Caps)
11. Josh Adams (6 Caps)
10. Gareth Anscombe (21 Caps)
9. Tomos Williams (6 Caps)
1. Rob Evans (31 Caps)
2. Ken Owens (60 Caps)
3. Tomas Francis (36 Caps)
4. Adam Beard (8 Caps)
5. Alun Wyn Jones (120 Caps) (CAPT)
6. Josh Navidi (11 Caps)
7. Justin Tipuric (60 Caps)
8. Ross Moriarty (26 Caps)
REPLACEMENTS:
16. Elliot Dee (13 Caps)
17. Wyn Jones (10 Caps)
18. Samson Lee (38 Caps)
19. Cory Hill (22 Caps)
20. Aaron Wainwright (3 Caps)
21. Gareth Davies (36 Caps)
22. Dan Biggar (65 Caps)
23. Owen Watkin (8 Caps)
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Latest Comments
I don't listen to Nigel Farage. Really not sure where you'd be getting that from. Maybe you should stick to responding to what I've actually said, rather than speculating about my sources.
I'm not sure what you think Putin is going to do. He'll probably conquer Ukraine, but its taken him a long time, and cost him a lot of soldiers. Hitler overran France in a matter of weeks and then started bombing Britain. At this rate Putin might make it to Paris by 2080? I think he'll give up long before then!
I don't see what Stalinist language policy has to do with any of what we're talking about. De-Ukrainization took place in the 1930s, but the genocide of Palestine is taking place in 2025. If your argument is that the invasion of Ukraine is part of a longer history of Russian suppression of Ukraine then you might have a point, but that really just underlines the key difference between Hitler and Putin; Hitler wanted to dominate as much area as possible and so posed a threat to all of Europe, whereas Putin wants to force the assimilation of those who have historically been within the Russian sphere of influence, so only poses a threat to eastern europe and central asia.
"Read and think for yourself."
What would you recommend I read? On the genocide of Palestine I've found Patrick Wolfe's "Settler Colonialism and the Elimination of the Native" and Sai Englert's "Settlers, Workers, and the Logic of Accumulation by Dispossession" especially useful - they might disabuse you of the notion that what we are witnessing is an "authoritarian criminal syndicate" fighting a nation! - rather Zionist genocide is a largely democratic process, arising from a structure of settler colonialism which has no analogue in Ukraine.
Go to commentsAnd they're really playing good rugby,beating every team because they can squat with heavy weights. Not
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