Wayne Pivac announced Dan Biggar as his new captain after he named his 2022 Six Nations squad that includes three debutants.
The fly half takes over the leadership duties from the injured Alun Wyn Jones, who is joined in the treatment room by fellow British and Irish Lions George North, Leigh Halfpenny, Ken Owens, Josh Navidi, Justin Tipuric and Taulupe Faletau.
Pivac said: “We think Dan at the moment is the form 10 and in the other positions there's a lot of competition. He has that experience that will go well alongside our vice-captain Adam Beard. In Beard, we have someone earmarked for the future, post-World Cup but he is someone with great leadership quality as well.
“Being captain will add to Dan's game, it's well documented that he is a highly motivated player, he's very competitive and speaks his mind. We don't want to change him as a competitive player, and we want him to take on the role as captain and learn how to deal with referees.”
Despite enduring nightmare injury problems, Pivac's Wales are boosted by the return of flanker Ross Moriarty to the squad.
He said: “Ross is on track to play hopefully the following weekend, so he'll be released from camp to get minutes under his belt. If he comes through that then he'll be available for selection against Ireland.”
Pivac's squad includes three uncapped players in the forwards as Dewi Lake, Jac Morgan and James Rhatti are included in the squad.
He said: “Dewi is someone you'll recall in 2019 as a part of four youngsters that joined the group for learning purposes, so he's been earmarked from a young age. He's captained Wales U20s in the past. I just think he brings a physical presence, he's 112 kilos, he's the biggest hooker running round in Wales. He's a very destructive player, who is good over the ball and is a strong ball carrier which is what we need. We lost a lot of experience in our better ball carriers through injury. So, what he brings makes up for a lot of the absences we have.
“Jac comes in at a position where we have a lot of competition and we discussed Jac around the Autumn Series but opted for Taine Basham and we saw the results in that selection. Jac gets an opportunity this time through injury though, we know he's very good over the ball, has a high work rate and we'll look to add to his game and see if we can develop him further.
“We don't have many No.8's in this country, so James has converted from second row. He's got good size and what we want to do is add to his game but he's a good one to have on our radar as we approach the 2023 World Cup.”
Slightly surprising is that there are no places in the squad for Cardiff winger Owen Lane, Wasps flanker Thomas Young or Sale's WillGriff John.
Wales kick off their Six Nations campaign with a tough trip to Ireland in the tournament's curtain raiser on the 5th of February.
