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Wales Online
Wales Online
Sport
Ben James

Wales call up replacement as Dewi Lake's autumn over before it started

Dragons hooker Bradley Roberts has been called into the Wales squad ahead of the autumn campaign.

The 26-year-old replaces Dewi Lake, who suffered a shoulder injury during the Ospreys' defeat to Roberts' Dragons on Sunday at Rodney Parade.

Roberts will now compete with Scarlets duo Ken Owens and Ryan Elias for the hooker jersey ahead of the New Zealand match on November 5.

Read more: Wales press conference live as injury updates given ahead of All Blacks Test

The former Ulster hooker, who made his Wales debut last year, initially missed out on selection in Wayne Pivac's squad last week despite a strong start to the season in Gwent. Speaking about his disappointment to miss out, he told the Scrum V podcast he felt he was more deserving of a call-up this time than when he had actually made the squad previously.

"I'm very disappointed," he said. "It felt like this was the one where I deserved it the most. I feel like that last two times [call-ups] were a bit of a shock and I hadn't really earned it.

"But I felt like this time I was really putting my hand up and, on form, I really deserved it. But it wasn't meant to be, there is only so much I can do and the decision is not mine at the end of the day.

"I spoke to Wayne [Pivac] and he basically said that I was going well. Set piece is the thing that is big in international rugby and he said my set piece has improved but they still trust the other guys a bit more than me at the moment.

"There is nothing I can really do about that but keep trying to get better each day. That's the reason I came here, at the end of the day. I wanted to be involved as much as possible with the international team.

"The biggest thing for me at the moment is trying to find out where I can get the caps because I know there are a lot of guys there with money in the bank and I think I'm playing as well, if not better than them."

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