Wales bring in Roberts and Wainwright for England

Joe Roberts (left) has four Wales caps, Aaron Wainwright has 56

Men's Six Nations: Wales v England

Venue: Principality Stadium, Cardiff Date: Saturday, 15 March Kick-off: 16:45 GMT

Coverage: Watch on BBC One, BBC Sport website and app, plus S4C via iPlayer. Text commentary and highlights on BBC Sport website and app. Listen live on BBC Radio Wales, BBC Radio Cymru, BBC Radio 5 Live.

Wales have brought in Joe Roberts and Aaron Wainwright as two starting changes for the Six Nations finale against England in Cardiff on Saturday.

Scarlets centre Roberts will make his first professional start on the wing as he replaces the injured Tom Rogers.

Roberts impressed after coming on as a 10th-minute replacement in the 35-29 defeat by Scotland at Murrayfield.

Wainwright will pack down in the back row instead of Tommy Reffell who drops down to the replacements bench, which also includes Saracens centre Nick Tompkins.

Interim head coach Matt Sherratt has resisted the temptation to make more starting changes in his final game in charge.

Wales line-up to face England

Wales: Murray; Mee, Llewellyn, B Thomas, Roberts; Anscombe, Tomos Williams; Smith, Dee, John, Rowlands, Jenkins, Wainwright, Morgan (capt), Faletau.

Replacements: Lake, G Thomas, Assiratti, Teddy Williams, Reffell, R Williams, J Evans, Tompkins.

Roberts happy to fill in out of position

Wales' back three options are limited with Rogers ruled out after suffering a fractured thumb.

His fellow wing Josh Adams sustained a hamstring injury in training and has not featured since the opening two Six Nations games.

Full-back Liam Williams was ruled out of the tournament after sustaining a knee injury in the competition opener against France.

Sherratt opted not to call up any reinforcements this week with Cardiff full-back Cameron Winnett and Dragons wing Rio Dyer overlooked for this campaign.

Gloucester wing Josh Hathaway was the only specialist squad option remaining but Sherratt has opted to utilise Roberts out of position and put Saracens centre Tompkins on the bench.

Roberts, 24, has made 32 starts at centre for Scarlets, although he has made the odd replacement appearance on the wing.

"Getting the chance to wear the shirt in any position is a huge honour," said Roberts.

"I have never really started the game there but have a bit of experience. Early on when I first started to play for Scarlets, when I was on the bench and you have the likes of Jonathan Davies and Johnny Williams there, I would come on on the wing."

Roberts was exposed to 70 minutes last weekend when Rogers was forced off.

"There is always a chance it can happen, so I prepared for it during the week but you never think it will happen that early," said Roberts.

"It went alright. I made some errors not being used to playing there as often but I enjoyed it. It was nice to have the ball in a bit of space and it was a bit of a change."

Back-row band back together

Wainwright, 27, will pack down in the back row alongside Taulupe Faletau and captain Jac Morgan with the trio reunited from the start of a game for the first time since Wales defeated Australia 40-6 in Lyon at the 2023 World Cup.

Wainwright makes his second start of the campaign after starting at number eight in the opening 43-0 defeat by France in Paris. He only lasted a few minutes before being forced off with a facial injury.

The Dragons back-rower came off the replacements bench in the next three games with Taulupe Faletau returning to the number eight role and flankers James Botham and Tommy Reffell selected alongside captain Jac Morgan.

Sherratt decided to employ two openside flankers in Reffell and Morgan in his first two games in charge for the defeats against Ireland and Scotland.

Wainwright returns to fill the number six shirt in which he started his international career.

"Aaron has been a bit unlucky not to be selected in the last couple of games," said Sherratt.

"It was probably just freshening up in that area, with Tommy going to the bench."

Contrasting fortunes

Wales, who have been beaten in all four games in this campaign, are bidding to avoid a 17th successive Test defeat and 11th Six Nations loss on the bounce.

Wales' most recent Test match victory came against World Cup pool opponents Georgia in October 2023.

They have also lost their previous eight home games in Cardiff and been defeated in the past eight Six Nations matches at the Principality Stadium.

Wales are also bidding to avoid a clean sweep of defeats in successive tournaments for the first time in their history.

Warren Gatland departed as head coach in February following a dismal 22-15 defeat by Italy in February, with Sherratt in charge for the final three games of the tournament.

In contrast, England will arrive at the Principality Stadium as title contenders, although a France bonus-point victory against Scotland later on Saturday night will guarantee Les Bleus top spot.