Wales may put Test rugby’s most capped player on the bench when Wayne Pivac names his team on Thursday for the first Test match of the series against the Springboks.

According to WalesOnline, Pivac is likely to favour Will Rowlands ahead of Alun Wyn Jones for the first of three Tests against the Springboks in Pretoria on Saturday.

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Jones captained the British & Irish Lions during the series in South Africa last year and started all three Tests against the Boks after making a surprise recovery from a dislocated shoulder.

However, he was supplanted as Wales captain by Dan Biggar during the Six Nations and the flyhalf has retained the captaincy for the upcoming Tests.

The 36-year-old Jones missed most of the Six Nations through injury and, on his return, Wales suffered a historic loss to Italy in the final round of the tournament.

“In the second row, the big call is whether Pivac rewards Will Rowlands for an award-winning year or brings Alun Wyn Jones back in once again,” journalist Ben James writes. “It didn’t work out against Italy, with Jones looking a passenger in an admittedly poor team performance.

“But this is the world champions and Test rugby’s most capped player lives for these occasions, as demonstrated by last year’s comeback from a tour-ending injury. Remove emotion and reputation from the situation though and it’s Rowlands who partners Adam Beard in Pretoria.”

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Likely Wales team – 15 Liam Williams, 14 Alex Cuthbert, 13 George North, 12 Nick Tompkins, 11 Josh Adams, 10 Dan Biggar, 9 Tomos Williams, 8 Taulupe Faletau, 7 Josh Navidi, 6 Dan Lydiate, 5 Will Rowlands, 4 Adam Beard, 3 Tomas Francis, 2 Dewi Lake, 1 Wyn Jones.
Likely replacements: 16 Ryan Elias, 17 Rhys Carre, 18 Dillon Lewis, 19 Alun Wyn Jones, 20 Taine Basham, 21 Kieran Hardy, 22 Rhys Patchell, 23 Louis Rees-Zammit.

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