Wales v Uruguay: Justin Tipuric captains side with 13 changes

Flanker Justin Tipuric will captain Wales as head coach Warren Gatland makes 13 changes for their final World Cup pool match against Uruguay.

Centre Hadleigh Parkes and wing Josh Adams are the only players remaining from Wednesday's win over Fiji.

Lock Adam Beard makes his first World Cup appearance after recovering from appendix surgery.

Wales have already achieved quarter-final qualification and need two points to finish top of Pool D.

Wales were always planning to make changes for this fixture, given the tight turnaround from Wednesday's bonus-point victory against Fiji.

The need to rotate the squad was compounded by the number of injuries picked up during that match, with fly-half Dan Biggar and centre Jonathan Davies forced off the field in Oita.

Gatland said George North carried an ankle knock into the Fiji game and the need to rest him contributed to Adams again starting despite the latter suffering a dead leg in that match.

Adams switches from the left to right wing with Hallam Amos making his first tournament appearance at 11.

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Injuries and rotation mean Wales have chosen scrum-halves Gareth Davies and Tomos Williams as their only backs on the bench, alongside six forwards.

That means there will be no specialist fly-half cover for Rhys Patchell, who starts at 10 in Biggar's absence.

Gatland has suggested the cover will come from Parkes, who has limited experience of playing professional rugby at fly-half, or Amos, who has never played at 10 in his senior career.

The replacement scrum-halves might also be asked to cover the fly-half position.

The Wales coach says having four days between the Fiji and Uruguay games has enforced "a bit of a juggling act" and selection discussions included asking flanker James Davies to play in the backs.

"We knew that right from the start we were going to expose a few players," said Gatland.

"I spoke before the World Cup [to say] we would probably go into this game with only one 10 anyway so we are looking for cover there as well.

"It's been hard with the short turnaround, but we have a forward pack that are all fresh and pretty excited and they are looking forward to the opportunity.

"The message to the players for the game against Uruguay is the door is not shut. There are opportunities for players to go out there and impress and stake a claim for the quarter-finals."

Flankers as backs?

Gatland added: "We spoke about whether we could have put James Davies in the backs. He has a lot of sevens experience and Justin (Tipuric) is also pretty comfortable playing in the wider channels as well.

"We are confident we have cover with players and being able to move around if we need to do that.

"We have had two players back up in Hadleigh Parkes and Josh Adams.

"Ideally we would have liked to have given Josh a rest, but that has not been the case and that's why we have ended up going for a 6-2 split with two nines covering the backs.

"Gareth (Davies) went onto the wing at the end of the Fiji game and did a good job for us. We have two quality nines who can cover different positions."

Uruguay have made nine changes to the starting XV that lost 45-10 to Australia with German Kessler, Diego Arbelo, Manuel Leindekar, Felipe Berchesi, Nicolas Freitas and Andres Vilaseca retaining their starting spots.

Wales: Halfpenny; Adams, Watkin, Parkes, Amos; Patchell, A Davies; Smith, Elias, Lewis, B Davies, Beard, Shingler, Tipuric (capt), Wainwright.

Replacements: Dee, Carre, W Jones, Ball, Moriarty, James Davies, T Williams, G Davies.

Uruguay: Mieres; Leivas, Cat, Vilaseca, Freitas; Berchesi, Arata; Sanguinetti, Kessler, Arbelo, Dotti, Leindeker, Gaminara (capt), Civetta, Nieto.

Replacements: Pujadas, Echeverria, Rombys, Magno, Diana, Ormaechea, Inciarte, Silva.