Wales rugby boss Warren Gatland has named his 23-man squad to face current two-time reigning world champions South Africa, in a bid to end the longest losing streak in the nation’s history. Gatland has named an unexperienced backline, that boasts a combined 61 test caps, after Gloucester’s Gareth Anscombe’s omission from the team in favour of Sam Costelow.
Also returning to the team for his first appearance of the autumn is Dragon’s winger Rio Dyer, in his first game for Wales since their summer tour of Australia.
The Welsh will be hoping to turn their form around, following their record loss by Australia at the Principality last week, as the visitors ran in eight tries in a dominant performance that ended 20-52. This defeat broke the nation’s record of most consecutive losses (11), a record that has stood since 2003.
Losing their last test of the Autumn Nations series would result in Wales most likely dropping below Georgia in the world rankings to 12th in the world, as well as ending the calendar year winless for the first time since 1937.
When asked whether he still had a desire to remain coach the team, Gatland said, “Absolutely. I think we’ve been clear in terms of the plan we have. We’ve got a group of young players that need a bit of time.” This comes after it was reported that the Kiwi spoke to the WRU chairman, Richard Collier-Keywood, and executive director of rugby Nigel Walker, following the loss to the Wallabies regarding Gatland’s future in charge of the struggling team.
South Africa, in contrast, come off a strong performance against England last week, looking to end their tour of the Northern Hemisphere with a perfect record.