Wales senior men’s head coach Waren Gatland has named a 54-player preliminary training squad for Rugby World Cup 2023.
The squad includes six Dragons with hooker Elliot Dee, locks Ben Carter and Will Rowlands, back rows Taine Basham and Aaron Wainwright and wing Rio Dyer all selected for the upcoming training camps.
Players will start to come in for training sessions with Wales on a rolling basis from 25 May, with entry into camp depending on when an individual’s club season has ended.
In addition to sessions at the National Centre of Excellence in Hensol, Wales will travel to Switzerland and Turkey in July for specialist training camps. The squad size will be reduced ahead of each trip.
Wales then have three Summer Series Test matches against England (home and away on 5 and 12 August) and South Africa (19 August at Principality Stadium) before the official 33-player squad to head to Rugby World Cup 2023 in France is named.
Public sale tickets to watch Wales at Principality Stadium are available now from WRU.WALES/TICKETS
Gatland said: “We’ve picked a large squad for a number of reasons. We will reduce the squad to about 45 before we go to Switzerland so there’s a bit of jeopardy in the first part of the campaign.
“It’s a great opportunity for some players that were involved in the Six Nations and some youngsters for the future to show us what they are capable of doing in the first part of the preparation.
“In the past we’ve prided ourselves on how hard we’ve worked and how fit the squad has been. So that’s the message to the players to come in and make a statement, work really hard, make the coaches sit up and take notice and get yourself in great shape physically.
“A lot of skill work needs to be done and there’s an opportunity to work on the detail you often don’t get when you go into Six Nations or Autumn campaigns when you have limited preparation time.”
Wales preliminary training squad for Rugby World Cup 2023
Forwards (31)
Rhys Carre (Cardiff Rugby – 20 caps)
Corey Domachowski (Cardiff Rugby – uncapped)
Kemsley Mathias (Scarlets – uncapped)
Nicky Smith (Ospreys – 42 caps)
Gareth Thomas (Ospreys – 21 caps)
Eliott Dee (Dragons – 41 caps)
Ryan Elias (Scarlets – 33 caps)
Dewi Lake (Ospreys – 8 caps)
Ken Owens (Scarlets – 91 caps)
Keiron Assiratti (Cardiff Rugby – uncapped)
Tomas Francis (Ospreys – 71 caps)
Will Davies-King (Cardiff Rugby – uncapped)
Dillon Lewis (Cardiff Rugby – 50 caps)
Henry Thomas (Montpellier – uncapped)
Adam Beard (Ospreys – 46 caps)
Ben Carter (Dragons – 9 caps)
Rhys Davies (Ospreys – 2 caps)
Cory Hill (Yokohama Canon Eagles – 32 caps)
Dafydd Jenkins (Exeter Chiefs – 6 cap)
Alun Wyn Jones (Ospreys – 157 caps)
Will Rowlands (Dragons – 23 caps)
Christ Tshiunza (Exeter Chiefs – 5 caps)
Teddy Williams (Cardiff Rugby – uncapped)
Taine Basham (Dragons – 11 caps)
Taulupe Faletau (Cardiff Rugby – 100 caps)
Dan Lydiate (Ospreys – 68 caps)
Josh Macleod (Scarlets – 2 caps)
Jac Morgan (Ospreys – 9 caps)
Tommy Reffell (Leicester Tigers – 9 caps)
Justin Tipuric (Ospreys – 93 caps)
Aaron Wainwright (Dragons – 37 caps)
Backs (23)
Gareth Davies (Scarlets – 67 caps)
Kieran Hardy (Scarlets – 17 caps)
Rhys Webb (Ospreys – 40 caps)
Tomos Williams (Cardiff Rugby – 45 caps)
Gareth Anscombe (Ospreys – 35 caps)
Dan Biggar (Toulon – 107 caps)
Sam Costelow (Scarlets – 2 caps)
Owen Williams (Ospreys – 7 caps)
Mason Grady (Cardiff Rugby – 2 caps)
Max Llewellyn (Cardiff Rugby – uncapped)
George North (Ospreys – 113 caps)
Joe Roberts (Scarlets – uncapped)
Nick Tompkins (Saracens – 27 caps)
Johnny Williams (Scarlets – 5 caps)
Keiran Williams (Ospreys – uncapped)
Josh Adams (Cardiff Rugby – 49 caps)
Alex Cuthbert (Ospreys – 57 caps)
Rio Dyer (Dragons – 7 caps)
Cai Evans (Ospreys – uncapped)
Leigh Halfpenny (Scarlets – 99 caps)
Louis Rees-Zammit (Gloucester Rugby – 25 caps)
Tom Rogers (Scarlets – 2 caps)
Liam Williams (Cardiff Rugby – 84 caps)
2023 SUMMER SERIES FIXTURES
Saturday 5 August: Wales v England
Principality Stadium, Cardiff
KO 17.30 BST
Tickets available now from WRU.WALES/TICKETS
CAT A £80, CAT B £60, CAT C £40 Under-17 50% concession available on all tickets
Saturday 12 August: England v Wales
Twickenham Stadium
KO 17.30 BST
Saturday 25 February: Wales v South Africa
Principality Stadium, Cardiff
KO 15.15
Tickets available now from WRU.WALES/TICKETS
CAT A £60, CAT B £40, CAT C £20 Under-17 50% concession available on all tickets
