Justin Tipuric is set to return to the Wales starting XV for the Autumn Nations Cup opener against Ireland in Dublin on Friday evening.
The 31-year-old openside, one of the few authentically world-class players available to Wayne Pivac, missed the loss to Scotland on Halloween because of a bout of tonsilitis.
Man of the match when Wales won at the Aviva Stadium in 2015, Tipuric is in line to come back for a game few expect Wales to win after a run of five consecutive defeats.
Pivac will hope the Ospreys captain can help strengthen Wales’ defence and improve their performance at the breakdown, where they came off second best against Scotland.
Despite a clamour for changes, the national coach could opt to push back any experiments until the game with Georgia on November 1, when wholesale alterations are expected with many squad players set to be given chances.
For this weekend, it could even be that Tipuric coming in for James Davies is the only change from the team that lost 14-10 to the Scots
Rhys Webb seems unlikely to shake off the knee injury that placed off limits for the game in Llanelli last time out.
That should give Gareth Davies the chance to continue at scrum-half.
The impact Wyn Jones off the bench against the Scots has been noted and consideration was being given to drafting him into the starting line-up, but the selectors have also been encouraged by elements of Rhys Carre’s game.
Ten years to the day that he made his Wales debut, George North is likely to feature on the bench.
Wales (possible): L. Halfpenny; L. Williams, J. Davies, O. Watkin, J. Adams; D. Biggar, G. Davies; R. Carre, R. Elias, T. Francis, W. Rowlands, A. W. Jones, S. Lewis-Hughes, J. Tipuric, T. Faletau.
