By Dai
August 24 2003

Wales travel to Dublin this weekend for the first of their World Cup warm up matches. For a full preview of the Wales team to face Ireland and details of the Irish team read on.

Wales travel to Ireland this weekend to take part in the first of their 4 World Cup warmup matches in preparation for the tournament in October. The last time Wales visited Ireland they were hammered by 54 -10 and as a result, coach Graham Henry resigned leaving his assistant Steve Hansen to take change but with Steve Hansen at the helm will things be any different this time around when we pay the Irish a visit?

Hansen has opted to blood new players in the match as he looks to fill the remaining 10 places which are up for grabs in his World Cup squad whereas his Irish counterpart Eddie O'Sullivan has chosen to stick with experience as he looks to record a win to boost his teams confidence ahead of the World Cup.

The Wales team contains a couple of experienced internationals in captain and winger Gareth Thomas and lock Gareth Llewellyn and added to this is a host of inexperienced international players. Nicky Robinson makes his full debut at full back to see how he gets on just in case Kevin Morgan fails to recover in time, Rhys Oakley, a new signing for the Gwent Dragons starts in the back row alongside Richard Parks and Alix Popham and on the bench there is new blood in Huw Bennett, Robin Sowden Taylor, Andy Williams and Nathan Brew.

So, taking a more detailed look at the Wales team we see that alongside Nicky Robinson in the other two "full back" positions are Gareth Thomas who captains the team for the first time and Garan Evans who makes only his second appearance in the Wales jersey. In the centre is the Cardiff pair of Jamie Robinson, older brother of Nicky and Iestyn Harris who has been given a chance to play for the nation in a position which may be more suited to him at international level.

There is a youthful look to the half back pairing with Ceri Sweeney, who started against England in February, and Dwayne Peel who has now had quite a few international outings starting in the 9 and 10 jerseys.

In the forwards Hansen has given Ben Evans another chance after dropping him for the summer tour and he will play in the front row alongside Mefin Davis and Duncan Jones. In the second row, Michael Owen is given a chance to impress alongside Gareth Llewellyn as Steve Hansen sees his long term future as a lock and in the back row there is an untried combination of Alix Popham, Richard Parks and Rhys Oakley.

However, Wales may be opting for youth ahead of experience but as Eddie O' Sullivans team shown below shows, he is looking at the match in a completely different way.

How will Wales perform? Has Hansen got it right?

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The Teams

Wales: Nicky Robinson, Garan Evans, Jamie Robinson, Iestyn Harris, Gareth Thomas (c), Ceri Sweeney, Dwayne Peel, Duncan Jones, Mefin Davies, Ben Evans, Gareth Llewellyn, Michael Owen, Ricahrd Parks, Rhys Oakley, Alix Popham.

Replacements: Huw Bennett, Gethin Jenkins, Vernon Cooper, Robin Sowden-Taylor, Andy Williams, Andy Marinos, Nathan Brew.

Ireland: G Murphy. S Horgan, B O'Driscoll, K Maggs, A Horgan. D Humphreys, P Stringer, R Corrigan, K Wood (c), S Best, M O'Kelly, P O'Connell, V Costello, A Foley, K Gleeson.

Replacements: J Fitzpatrick, S Byrne, D O'Callaghan, D Wallace, G Easterby, T Howe, G Dempsey

Other Info

Last Match between teams: Wales 24 - 25 Ireland - Cardiff  (6 nations 2003)

Last Match between teams in Ireland: Ireland 54 - 10 Wales - Dublin (6 nations 2002)