Injured Wainwright withdrawn from Wales side, Morse eyes debut
Rugby Union - Six Nations Championship - Wales v Ireland - Millennium Stadium, Cardiff, Wales, Britain - February 22, 2025 Wales' Aaron Wainwright Action Images via Reuters/Andrew Couldridge
Wales number eight Aaron Wainwright has been withdrawn from the team to face New Zealand in Cardiff on Saturday due to a hip injury, opening up the potential of a debut off the bench for Morgan Morse.
Taine Plumtree will take Wainwright's place in the starting XV, with the uncapped Morse brought onto the bench as the latter's replacement.
"We've been managing Aaron's training load this week," coach Steve Tandy said. "Following assessment again today we have taken the decision to remove him from playing on Saturday."
Morse, 20, has been a regular for the Wales Under-20 side in recent years and will join starting flanker Harri Deaves in making his senior debut should he be used.
Updates Wales team:
15-Blair Murray, 14-Louis Rees-Zammit, 13-Max Llewellyn, 12-Joe Hawkins, 11-Tom Rogers, 10-Dan Edwards, 9-Tomos Williams, 8-Taine Plumtree, 7-Harri Deaves, 6-Alex Mann, 5-Adam Beard, 4-Dafydd Jenkins, 3-Keiron Assiratti, 2-Dewi Lake (captain), 1-Rhys Carre
Replacements: 16-Brodie Coghlan, 17-Gareth Thomas, 18-Archie Griffin, 19-Freddie Thomas, 20-Morgan Morse, 21-Kieran Hardy, 22-Jarrod Evans, 23-Nick Tompkins
