With Sam Costelow ruled out, Dan Edwards returns to take over at fly half in a slightly tweaked Welsh team. James Botham comes into the back row after injury to Taine Plumtree, while Ellis Mee is back on the wing at Gabriel Hamer-Webb’s expense.

There was a slight fitness doubt over Aaron Wainwright but the No 8 has been picked to start. Bath centre Louie Hennessey will win his first cap from the bench.

Wales XV: 1 Rhys Carre, 2 Dewi Lake (capt.), 3 Tomas Francis; 4 Dafydd Jenkins, 5 Ben Carter; 6 Alex Mann, 7 James Botham, 8 Aaron Wainwright; 9 Tomos Williams, 10 Dan Edwards; 11 Josh Adams, 12 Joe Hawkins, 13 Eddie James, 14 Ellis Mee; 15 Louis Rees-Zammit.

Replacements: 16 Ryan Elias, 17 Nicky Smith, 18 Archie Griffin, 19 Adam Beard, 20 Olly Cracknell; 21 Kieran Hardy, 22 Jarrod Evans, 23 Louie Hennessey.

Andy Farrell names an Ulster-heavy side after their strong form in the URC this season, with Tom O’Toole, Nick Timoney and Jacob Stockdale joining Stuart McCloskey and Robert Baloucoune in the starting side, and scrum half Nathan Doak primed for a debut off the bench.

Ronan Kelleher and Tom Stewart are the hookers in the squad with Dan Sheehan rested, while there is no place for Bundee Aki despite his availability after his ban.

Ireland XV: 1 Tom O’Toole, 2 Ronan Kelleher, 3 Tadhg Furlong; 4 James Ryan, 5 Tadhg Beirne; 6 Jack Conan, 7 Nick Timoney, 8 Caelan Doris (capt.); 9 Jamison Gibson-Park, 10 Jack Crowley; 11 Jacob Stockdale, 12 Stuart McCloskey, 13 Garry Ringrose, 14 Robert Baloucoune; 15 Jamie Osborne.

Replacements: 16 Tom Stewart, 17 Michael Milne, 18 Thomas Clarkson, 19 Joe McCarthy, 20 Josh van der Flier; 21 Nathan Doak, 22 Tom Farrell, 23 Ciaran Frawley.

You may notice a little later that Wales are not sporting their usual red kits this evening – with good reason, too.

Need a reminder of all of the Six Nations action so far and the fixtures still to come in the championship? We’ve got you covered:

Dewi Lake admits last year’s British and Irish Lions selection highlights “an obvious gulf” between Wales and Ireland.

But the Wales captain is relishing the underdog role and insists his side are capable of springing an upset in Dublin to end a run of 14 consecutive Guinness Six Nations defeats.

Flanker Jac Morgan, who is currently injured, and scrum-half Tomos Williams were the only two Welshmen picked by Ireland head coach Andy Farrell for the Lions’ triumphant 2025 series in Australia.

Ireland ultimately had 18 players on that tour, including three late additions as injury cover.

Speaking about the selection ahead of the first meeting between the teams since, Ospreys hooker Lake said: “It can’t not (show the difference), really, can it?

“Ultimately over the last 12 months, we haven’t been good enough as a team.

“I think the two individuals, Tomos and Jac, are world-class players, fully deserved to be on that tour. We haven’t put enough results together, we haven’t shown the team and the individuals we can be over the last 12 months.

“Obviously Ireland are a team that massively have grown and are a top-class team. It shows an obvious gulf at the minute. But, on our day, we believe we can beat anyone.”

It was equally interesting to listen to World Rugby explain its vision for the future of the sport last week:

We’ll get back to the build-up to today’s game in a bit, but first an important topic again in the news this week – the complex concussion question continues to trouble rugby:

Captain Caelan Doris insists Ireland are “nowhere near” realising their full potential as they chase the minimum of the Triple Crown following a record win away to England.

Andy Farrell’s side retain an outside chance of reclaiming the Six Nations title ahead of back-to-back home games against Wales and Scotland.

Following a deflating opening defeat to table-topping France in Paris and a narrow Dublin victory over Italy, Ireland silenced their critics with a thumping 42-21 bonus-point success at Twickenham in round three.

“Obviously there’s a positive feeling after a good performance like that but it’s about the bigger picture, really, and it’s about continuing to grow,” said Doris ahead of the clash with Wales.

“We know we’re nowhere near our potential as a team and there’s a lot of hard work to be put in, and there’s a long journey for us to go on still.

“It was back to hard work, back to the learnings from the game, of which there were some, as well as some good stuff. It’s just about building on it.

“We’ve got a pretty clear plan of where we want to go in terms of structures and the way we want to play and it’s about chasing that down week on week.”

Andy Farrell expects to hold talks about his future as Ireland head coach in the “near future” following reports linking him with Saracens.

The Gallagher Prem club last week dismissed claims they had offered the 50-year-old a coaching role for after the 2027 Rugby World Cup, branding them “disrespectful”.

Farrell, who is preparing for Ireland’s Guinness Six Nations match at home to Wales on Friday evening, was a Sarries player between 2005 and 2009 and also began his coaching career there.

His son – former England captain Owen Farrell – is back playing with the English side following a brief spell with French club Racing 92.

Farrell succeeded Joe Schmidt as Ireland head coach in 2019 and signed a new “long-term” deal with the Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU) in December 2023 to continue until next year’s World Cup in Australia.

“I mean, you’d expect me to say that I’m here to just concentrate on the Six Nations and what will be, will be in the future,” he said of the links to Saracens.

“But I suppose it’s people (putting) two and two together and making five with the connections: good friends with the owner, Owen’s there, all of that.

“You can see why that’s happened but I suppose we’ll sit down and have discussions with the IRFU in the near future, that’s for sure.”

Ireland have in the last week or so had to deal with questions over the future of Andy Farrell, who has been strongly linked with Saracens: