Costelow in for injured Anscombe - Wales make late change for Georgia match

Wales head coach Warren Gatland has to make a late change to his match-day 23, with Sam Costelow (pictured) moving from the bench to start at fly-half instead of Gareth Anscombe, who suffered a groin injury in the warm-up. Dan Biggar comes on to the bench for Wales as they face Georgia at the Stade de la Beaujoire in Nantes on Saturday, 7 October.

1 Gareth Thomas
2 Dewi Lake (c)
3 Tomas Francis
4 Will Rowlands
5 Dafydd Jenkins
6 Aaron Wainwright 
7 Tommy Reffell
8 Taulupe Faletau
9 Tomos Williams
10 Sam Costelow
11 Rio Dyer
12 Nick Tompkins
13 George North
14 Louis Rees-Zammit
15 Liam Williams

Replacements: 
16 Elliot Dee
17 Nicky Smith
18 Henry Thomas
19 Christ Tshiunza
20 Taine Basham 
21 Gareth Davies
22 Dan Biggar
23 Mason Grady

Change from original match-day squad: Gareth Anscombe (injury)

• Dafydd Jenkins earns his second start of RWC 2023 after playing 50 minutes against Portugal in Nice, and starts alongside Will Rowlands in the second-row for only the second time in his career after England in August.
• After starting the first four tests of his career in 2022, Tommy Reffell wears the number seven jersey for only the third time this year, after earning five of his seven test caps in 2023 off the bench. 
• Rio Dyer makes just his second start at RWC 2023, and is still chasing his first try at this tournament. 
• There are only six survivors in the starting XV from their 13-12 loss against Georgia in 2022 with Gareth Thomas, George North, Tomos Williams, Taulupe Faletau, Dafydd Jenkins and Louis Rees-Zammitt all returning. 
• This will be George North’s 19th Rugby World Cup match – only Gethin Jenkins (21) has played more games at this tournament for Wales. He was one of six Welsh try-scorers against Georgia at RWC 2019.