Warren Gatland has left experienced trio Alun Wyn Jones, Taulupe Faletau and Justin Tipuric out of Wales' starting line-up for Saturday's Six Nations clash against Scotland.
Wales were beaten 34-10 on home soil by Ireland in their tournament opener last weekend as Gatland's first game back in charge after replacing Wayne Pivac ended in defeat.
Gatland has rung the changes to his pack ahead of facing Scotland at Murrayfield, with British and Irish Lions veterans Jones, Faletau and Tipuric making way.
Jones and Tipuric have been left out of the matchday squad entirely, while Rhys Davies could make his Test debut from the replacements' bench.
Dafydd Jenkins and Christ Tshiunza will make their first starts for Wales, who have also added Tommy Reffell to their back row.
"We created opportunities last week but weren't clinical enough in terms of finishing them off," said Gatland, who has won all 10 matches against Scotland as Wales head coach.
"We need to start better. We gave away stupid penalties and unforced penalties when we weren't really under a lot of pressure so that's been an area that we've spoken about."
Wales have won 13 of their past 15 matches against Scotland in the Six Nations (L2), including six of their seven matches at Murrayfield during that run (L1).
Scotland also named their 15-man team on Thursday, with Zander Fagerson returning to the front row in the only change from the 29-23 victory over England.
Fagerson, who missed the win at Twickenham having only recently recovered from a hamstring injury, replaces the benched WP Nel.
Last week's Calcutta Cup hero Duhan van der Merwe is joined in the back three by Kyle Steyn and Stuart Hogg, who continues at full-back.
Gregor Townsend has also named an unchanged bench, meaning no place in the squad for Hamish Watson, despite recovering from concussion.
Scotland have won their opening Six Nations fixture in each of the past three years, but they went on to lose to Wales in round two in both 2021 and 2022.
However, since beating Scotland in that most recent meeting 12 months ago, Wales have gone on to win just twice in 11 matches, losing their last three in a row.
Scotland XV: Stuart Hogg, Kyle Steyn, Huw Jones, Sione Tuipulotu, Duhan van der Merwe; Finn Russell, Ben White; Pierre Schoeman, George Turner, Zander Fagerson; Richie Gray, Grant Gilchrist; Jamie Ritchie (c), Luke Crosbie, Matt Fagerson.
Replacements: Fraser Brown, Jamie Bhatti, WP Nel, Jonny Gray, Jack Dempsey, George Horne, Blair Kinghorn, Chris Harris.
Wales XV: Liam Williams; Josh Adams, George North, Joe Hawkins, Rio Dyer; Dan Biggar, Tomos Williams; Wyn Jones, Ken Owens (c), Dillon Lewis, Dafydd Jenkins, Adam Beard, Christ Tshiunza, Tommy Reffell, Jac Morgan.
Replacements: Scott Baldwin, Rhys Carre, Leon Brown, Rhys Davies, Taulupe Faletau, Rhys Webb, Rhys Patchell, Alex Cuthbert.
Girona 0-1 Villarreal: Traore strike lifts Yellow Submarine
Bertrand Traore's goal gave Villarreal a 1-0 win at Girona on Tuesday that prevented the hosts from reclaiming second spot in LaLiga.
Girona, who have enjoyed a superb campaign, are third with 75 points, trailing Barcelona, who moved a point clear with a 2-0 home win over Real Sociedad on Monday.
Alexander Sorloth and Goncalo Guedes went close for Villarreal in the first half, but Girona goalkeeper Paulo Gazzaniga was in fine form.
Traore broke the deadlock in the 59th minute after latching on to a superb pass from Guedes, however.
Viktor Tsyhankov, Savio and Artem Dovbyk all went close for Girona, but could not find the back of Filip Jorgensen's net.
Villarreal were reduced to 10 men in the 95th minute after Kiko Femenia was sent off for a second yellow card after a push on Aleix Garcia.
Data Debrief: Rare home loss for Girona
Girona have suffered only their second defeat at Montilivi in LaLiga this season, following a 0-3 loss to Real Madrid in September.
The home side attempted 749 passes in this game, their highest total in a single match in LaLiga this season.
Real Madrid 5-0 Alaves: Vinicius double continues LaLiga champions party
Vinicius Junior scored twice as newly-crowned LaLiga champions Real Madrid thrashed visitors Alaves 5-0 on Tuesday, after the hosts had paraded the trophy in front of the home fans before the game.
Jude Bellingham and Vinicius scored a goal each inside 30 minutes before Federico Valverde put Los Blancos 3-0 up at the break, unleashing an unstoppable shot into the roof of the net in first-half stoppage time.
Vinicius added one more in the 70th minute from a precise cross by Bellingham that the Brazilian fired into the top corner, and substitute Arda Guler completed the scoring with a low finish.
Carlo Ancelotti's side travel to Villarreal on Sunday before hosting Real Betis on May 25 ahead of their Champions League final against Borussia Dortmund on June 1.
Having thrashed Granada 4-0 on Saturday and Cadiz 3-0, either side of their Champions League semi-final victory over Bayern, Real are firing on all fronts heading into the Wembley Stadium showpiece.
Meanwhile, Alavez remain 11th in the table heading into their next game against Getafe at home on Saturday.
Data Debrief: Madrid capitalise on opportunities
Madrid found the back of the net five times from just 2.47 expected goals (xG), suggesting Los Blancos' finishing quality was far greater than Alaves' 1.28 xG.
Ancelotti's side have now kept 20 clean sheets in 36 LaLiga games this campaign, their most in a single season in the competition's history (19 in the 1986-87, 1987-88 and 2019-20 seasons).
Gauff sets up Swiatek semi-final meeting after downing Zheng in Rome
Coco Gauff will have the chance to down world number one Iga Swiatek after progressing to the Italian Open semi-finals with Tuesday's victory over Qinwen Zheng.
The 20-year-old breezed into the last-four draw in Rome after her straight-sets victory over Zheng, winning 7-6 (7-4) 6-1.
Gauff faced just one break point throughout the match, failing to hold her serve at 5-3 up as seven-seed Zhen battled back in the first set.
Yet Gauff eased through the tie-break and never looked back from there on, teeing up a meeting with Swiatek, who overcame Madison Keys in straight sets in her quarter-final clash.
Data Debrief: Young Gauff powers on
No player has won more matches than Gauff (61) in WTA-1000 events before turning 21, since the introduction of the format in 2009, as the American moved past Caroline Wozniacki (60) with victory here.
Wozniacki (eight) is also the only player to manage more WTA-1000 semi-final appearances before her 21th birthday, with Gauff's last-four qualification here taking her onto six – one ahead of Swiatek.
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