Wales number eight, Taulupe Faletau, has been declared fit to play in their Rugby World Cup Pool C opener in Bordeaux against Fiji on Sunday.
The experienced side features Faletau in the back row with captain Jac Morgan and Aaron Wainwright, who are joined by Will Rowlands and Adam Beard in the lock pairing.
Props Gareth Thomas and Tomas Francis make up the front row with hooker Ryan Elias, who has also recovered from injury to play.
The match will mark Faletau’s first Wales appearance since last season’s Six Nations after recovering from a calf muscle problem that prevented him from participating in Wales’ entire World Cup warm-up schedule.
The No. 8 with 100 caps goes straight into the starting lineup for Sunday’s Pool C clash in Bordeaux.
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Jac Morgan will captain the side, while Dewi Lake, the co-captain, won’t feature in the matchday 23 because of a knee injury suffered during Wales’s defeat to England at Twickenham last month.
Ryan Elias and Elliot Dee are selected for the game instead.
Head coach Warren Gatland expressed his confidence in the squad, saying, “We’ve had some good clarity about what we want to achieve and the way we want to play on the weekend. It’s going to be an exciting contest on Sunday and one that we are relishing.”
Gatland acknowledged that Fiji, who won their first-ever match against England in their final warm-up fixture, would be challenging opponents.
“Fiji are a good side with some great individual athletes and they play with a lot more structure now than maybe they have done traditionally,” he said.
