Wales name six new caps as Lake leads Japan tour
Dewi Lake co-captained Wales along with Jac Morgan at the 2023 Rugby World Cup
Wales interim coach Matt Sherratt has named six uncapped players for the two-Test tour of Japan, with hooker Dewi Lake given the captaincy.
Cardiff captain Liam Belcher, Dragons prop Chris Coleman, Ospreys trio Garyn Phillips, Keelan Giles and Reuben Morgan-Williams, plus Scarlets back Macs Page are the fresh faces, but there is no room for Ospreys number eight Morgan Morse.
Lake leads the 33-man squad in the absence of flanker Jac Morgan, who is on tour with the British and Irish Lions in Australia, along with Gloucester scrum-half Tomos Williams.
The notable absentees for Japan are locks Dafydd Jenkins, Adam Beard and Will Rowlands, Scarlets pair Henry Thomas and Ellis Mee, Gloucester duo Gareth Anscombe and Max Llewellyn, Saracens centre Nick Tompkins and Cardiff duo James Botham and Evan Lloyd.
Exeter lock Jenkins will have surgery and Scarlets prop Thomas needs to seek specialist opinion on a long-term condition.
Beard and Rowlands are rested but the absence of Tompkins, Mee, Llewellyn, Anscombe, Lloyd and Botham has not been explained.
Dragons second row Ben Carter, Scarlets fly-half Sam Costelow and Bath tight-head prop Archie Griffin return having missed the Six Nations due to injury.
Kieran Hardy, Alex Mann, Josh Macleod, James Ratti, Johnny Williams and Cameron Winnett have been handed recalls.
“I’m excited to get the players together in camp to begin preparations for our summer campaign,” said Sherratt.
“There’s a good blend of experience and young talent selected and this group has a lot of potential.
“Going to Japan this July is a challenge the coaches and I are relishing. We are expecting a fierce contest from Japan in these Test matches.
“Over the next few weeks in camp, it’s about working hard, getting all our prep right on and off the pitch and gelling together as a group.”
Desperate need for victory
Wales have not won a Test match in 19 months
Wales will look to end a record run of successive 17 Test losses in Japan, having not won an international since October 2023 in a run that includes two successive Six Nations Wooden Spoons.
Wales will play the Test matches against Eddie Jones’ Japan side in Kitakyushu and Kobe aiming not to slip from their lowest ever position of 12th in the world rankings.
The first Test, at Kitakyushu’s Mikuni World Stadium, will take place on 5 July in the city where Wales held their Rugby World Cup training camp in 2019.
The second Test will be played at Kobe’s Noevir Stadium which features a retractable roof seven days later.
Wales’ men have won 13 of their 14 previous meetings with Japan, with the most recent encounter, in Cardiff in 2016, ending in a 33-30 victory for the home side.
Wales’ only loss in this fixture came in the summer of 2013 when they lost 23-8 in Tokyo.
Wales squad to tour Japan
Forwards: Nicky Smith, Gareth Thomas, Garyn Phillips, Keiron Assiratti, Chris Coleman, Archie Griffin, Dewi Lake (capt), Liam Belcher, Elliot Dee, Ben Carter, Teddy Williams, Freddie Thomas, James Ratti, Taine Plumtree, Aaron Wainwright, Alex Mann, Taulupe Faletau, Tommy Reffell, Josh Macleod.
Backs: Kieran Hardy, Reuben Morgan-Williams, Rhodri Williams, Sam Costelow, Dan Edwards, Ben Thomas, Johnny Williams, Joe Roberts, Macs Page, Josh Adams, Tom Rogers, Blair Murray, Keelan Giles, Cameron Winnett.
