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Roberts set to win first cap for Wales

5th February 2008


Wales Coach Warren Gatland has made three changes to the side which defeated England at Twickenham for Scotland’s RBS Six Nations visit to the Millennium Stadium on Saturday (kick-off 2.00pm).

“When you beat England at Twickenham you don’t feel the need to make changes to a winning side, but there are areas we think we can improve,” said Gatland.

“Scotland will be hurting from their defeat to France last week and they will come to Cardiff targeting a win. They may feel they will find us in complacent mood after such a great result in Twickenham, but nothing could be further from the truth.

“We enjoyed the win, but 24 hours later we were straight back to business. We know we need to improve, Scotland will want to bounce back and we need a better performance this weekend if we are to achieve what we want from the game.”

Blues pair Jamie Roberts and Tom Shanklin come into the backline for Wales’s 113th meeting with Scotland replacing Mark Jones and Sonny Parker respectively.

The uncapped Roberts replaces Jones on the wing and will be Wales’s 1,057th international. Shanklin retains his spot at outside centre after coming on for Osprey Parker in the second half last week.

There are four changes on the bench where Gareth Delve is preferred to Alix Popham as back row cover and new call-up Deiniol Jones is handed the chance to add to his three caps.  Scrum half Dwayne Peel replaces Gareth Cooper and Parker completes his switch with Shanklin.

 “Impact from the bench was important for us last week and we are blessed again with the ability to use the likes of Gethin Jenkins and Matthew Rees if needed. We’ve also been able to name Dwayne Peel there with that thought in mind.”

WALES: Lee Byrne; Jamie Roberts, Tom Shanklin, Gavin Henson, Shane Williams; James Hook, Mike Phillips; Duncan Jones, Huw Bennett, Adam Jones, Ian Gough, Ian Evans, Jonathan Thomas, Martyn Williams, Ryan Jones

REPLACEMENTS: Matthew Rees, Gethin Jenkins, Deiniol Jones, Gareth Delve, Dwayne Peel, Stephen Jones, Sonny Parker