Leicester Tigers winger Gabe Hamer-Webb has been handed his debut as Wales make four changes for their clash with Scotland this Saturday.

Also coming into the starting XV is Sam Costelow, making his first start of the competition at flyhalf. The Scarlets playmaker has not been involved in the first two weeks of the tournament, but leapfrogs Jarrod Evans into the starting birth.

Taine Plumtree, who has appeared twice from the bench this Six Nations, wears the number six shirt, with Aaron Wainwright shifting to number eight, and Olly Cracknell dropping out completely.

Cracknell is one of four who started against France last week who are not in the 23 at all, with Adam Beard, Dan Edwards, and Ellis Mee also dropping out of the squad.

Ben Carter, Costelow, and Hamer-Webb replace the latter three.

The front row of Rhys Carre, captain Dewi Lake. and Tomas Francis remains, as do their replacements of Ryan Elias, Nicky Smith, and Archie Griffin on the bench.

Carter lines up next to Dafydd Jenkins in the second row, while Alex Mann continues at openside flanker.

Tomos Williams continues at scrumhalf, as do the centre partnership of Joe Hawkins and Eddie James.

Louis Rees-Zammit and Josh Adams also keep their places after last Sunday’s heavy defeat to France.

There are three changes to the bench, with James Botham, Freddie Thomas, and Blair Murray respectively looking to make their first appearances of this campaign.

“There are some changes to the team this week. We feel this is the best team to take on Scotland and with a six-day turnaround you want some freshness as well going into the game,” head coach Steve Tandy said.

“It’s our third game of the championship. We want to build on our performance. We want to see more consistent moments and back-to-back moments, which we feel if we get we’ll be closer to getting the outcome we want from games.”

On Gabriel Hamer-Webb making his debut Tandy added: “Gabe has really impressed me in the way he’s attacked training, the way he’s learnt, the way he’s adapted and the way he’s just settled into the squad. His training efforts have been outstanding.

“Then when you dig into his background at Leicester, even when he wasn’t in the team, everyone said he was an amazing team player. He also kept pushing, he never gave up and then when he had his Leicester opportunity he took it with two hands and now this opportunity has come up and it’s thoroughly deserved.”

Teams

Wales

Louis Rees-Zammit; Gabe Hamer-Webb, Eddie James, Joe Hawkins, Josh Adams; Sam Costelow, Tomos Williams; Rhys Carre, Dewi Lake (capt), Tomas Francis; Dafydd Jenkins, Ben Carter; Taine Plumtree, Alex Mann, Aaron Wainwright.

Replacements

Ryan Elias, Nicky Smith, Archie Griffin, Freddie Thomas, James Botham, Kieran Hardy, Jarrod Evans, Blair Murray.

Scotland

Blair Kinghorn, Kyle Steyn, Huw Jones, Sione Tuipulotu (capt), Duhan van der Merwe, Finn Russell, Ben White; Nathan McBeth, Dave Cherry, Zander Fagerson, Max Williamson, Scott Cummings, Gregor Brown, Rory Darge, Matt Fagerson.

Replacements

George Turner, Pierre Schoeman, Elliot Millar Mills, Grant Gilchrist, Josh Bayliss, George Horne, Tom Jordan, Darcy Graham.

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