{"id":281472,"date":"2025-11-13T09:40:15","date_gmt":"2025-11-13T09:40:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/281472\/"},"modified":"2025-11-13T09:40:15","modified_gmt":"2025-11-13T09:40:15","slug":"louis-rees-zammit-starts-as-wales-make-4-changes-for-defining-japan-showdown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/281472\/","title":{"rendered":"Louis Rees-Zammit starts as Wales make 4 changes for defining Japan showdown"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Louis Rees-Zammit will start for Wales<\/a> on Saturday against Japan<\/a> in what is shaping up to be their defining fixture of their Quilter Nations Series campaign.<\/p>\n

After marking his international return last week against Argentina<\/a> from the bench, the former NFL player will start this time round against Eddie Jones\u2019 side, replacing Tom Rogers<\/a> as the only change to the back line.<\/p>\n

There are three changes to the pack, with head coach Steve Tandy opting to swap his props around. After starting against the Pumsa, loosehead Rhys Carre<\/a> and tighthead Keiron Assiratti are among the substitutes, with Nicky Smith<\/a> and Archie Griffin<\/a> promoted to the starting XV.<\/p>\n

The final change in the pack sees Olly Cracknell<\/a>, who started on the bench last week, join the back-row in place of captain Jac Morgan<\/a>, who has been ruled out of the autumn campaign with a dislocated shoulder.<\/p>\n

Cracknell\u2019s start at No.8 has forced a back-row reshuffle, with Aaron Wainwright<\/a> moving from the back of the scrum to the blindside, and Alex Mann<\/a> wearing the No.7 jersey this week compared to No.6 last week.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Wales <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Japan <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Dewi Lake has taken over the captaincy in Morgan\u2019s absence.<\/p>\n

Tandy said: \u201cThe props started the game really well and played 45 minutes. We were always planning to rotate those round after the six-day turnaround. Then there\u2019s a reshuffle in the back row: Alex Mann goes to seven. We feel he\u2019s got all the qualities to play six or seven. Some of his attacking ability you\u2019ve seen on the weekend and his defensive energy was outstanding. Then bringing Olly Cracknell<\/a> in at No. 8 and moving Aaron Wainwright to six gives us a really good balance in the back row. <\/p>\n

\u201cLouis Rees-Zammit comes in on the wing. He played a good few minutes last weekend and we feel he\u2019s ready to return to the starting line-up. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think we\u2019ve definitely seen lots of how we want to play against Argentina. There was lots to be pleased about \u2013 our attack I thought was excellent and I saw a lot of physicality \u2013 but there\u2019s lots to improve. So that\u2019s what we\u2019ve been focusing on. We\u2019re looking to build on the first performance into this weekend.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wales XV
15. Blair Murray<\/a> (Scarlets \u2013 11 caps)
14. Louis Rees-Zammit<\/a> (Bristol<\/a> Bears \u2013 33 caps)
13. Max Llewellyn<\/a> (Gloucester<\/a> Rugby \u2013 9 caps)
12. Ben Thomas<\/a> (Cardiff Rugby \u2013 15 caps)
11. Josh Adams<\/a> (Cardiff Rugby \u2013 64 caps)
10. Dan Edwards (Ospreys \u2013 4 caps)
9. Tomos Williams<\/a> (Gloucester Rugby \u2013 65 caps)
1. Nicky Smith (Leicester<\/a> Tigers \u2013 57 caps)
2. Dewi Lake<\/a> (Ospreys \u2013 23 caps) captain
3. Archie Griffin (Bath<\/a> Rugby \u2013 9 caps)
4. Dafydd Jenkins<\/a> (Exeter Chiefs \u2013 24 caps)
5. Adam Beard<\/a> (Montpellier \u2013 59 caps)
6. Aaron Wainwright (Dragons \u2013 60 caps)
7. Alex Mann (Cardiff Rugby \u2013 8 caps)
8. Olly Cracknell (Leicester Tigers \u2013 1 cap) <\/p>\n

Replacements
16. Liam Belcher<\/a> (Cardiff Rugby \u2013 3 caps)
17. Rhys Carr\u00e9 (Saracens \u2013 21 caps)
18. Keiron Assiratti (Cardiff Rugby \u2013 16 caps)
19. Freddie Thomas<\/a> (Gloucester Rugby \u2013 5 caps)
20. Taine Plumtree<\/a> (Scarlets \u2013 8 caps)
21. Kieran Hardy<\/a> (Ospreys \u2013 26 caps)
22. Jarrod Evans<\/a> (Harlequins \u2013 12 caps)
23. Nick Tompkins<\/a> (Saracens \u2013 41 caps)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Louis Rees-Zammit will start for Wales on Saturday against Japan in what is shaping up to be their…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":281473,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-281472","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-rugby","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281472","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=281472"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281472\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/281473"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=281472"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=281472"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=281472"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}