Wales have made four personnel changes and one positional switch for their quarter-final against defending World Cup champions New Zealand on Saturday (7.30am UK kick-off time/7.30pm local time).
The two sides met in the second round of pool-stage fixtures, when the Black Ferns ran in 10 tries in their 56-12 victory. They face each other again in the last-eight by virtue of New Zealand finishing as top seeds, with three bonus-point wins from three, and Wales scraping through to the knockouts as the eighth seed.
Wales secured one pool stage victory over Scotland to reach their target of the quarter-finals. Coverage will be available on ITV and S4C online.
Winger Jasmine Joyce moves to full-back, with Lowri Norkett starting on the wing for the first time in this tournament opposite Lisa Neumann. Scrum-half Keira Bevan, who scored the match-winning penalty in Wales' World Cup opener against Scotland, is recalled to the starting line-up to partner fly-half Elinor Snowsill, having been on the bench for Wales' last three games. With Siwan Lillicrap on the bench, Hannah Jones retains the captaincy and lines up alongside Carys Williams-Morris in midfield.
Prop Donna Rose returns following her one-week suspension, while Carys Phillips is preferred at hooker. Cara Hope, who has started every World Cup game, completes the front row. Natalia John and Gwen Crabb will pack down in the second row, with Bethan Lewis taking the blindside berth opposite openside Alex Callender and Sioned Harries at the back of the scrum.
Fly-half Lleucu George and loosehead prop Gwenllian Pyrs are set to make their first appearances of the tournament from the bench. Kelsey Jones, Sisilia Tuipulotu and Georgia Evans complete for the forwards cover, with scrum-half Ffion Lewis and centre Megan Webb on hand for the backs.
New Zealand, meanwhile, have named a strong side, with world-class backs Stacey Fluhler, Ruby Tui and Portia Woodman all returning to the line-up and head coach Wayne Smith reverting to the half-back partnership of Kendra Cocksedge and Ruahei Demant. Co-captain Kennedy Simon has recovered from injury and will make her World Cup debut from the bench.
Wales coach Ioan Cunningham said his side intend to leave everything on the field against the Black Ferns, who are reigning champions and are well-placed to face favourites England in the final.
"We have a tough task on Saturday facing the Black Ferns on their home patch," he said. "They are in good form, scoring a lot of points and playing well. However, we have nothing to lose, we intend to go out and leave everything on the field. We had some setpiece dominance in our pool game against them but we also created quite a few chances, many of which we didn’t convert.
"New Zealand have got good athletes across the park, they keep the ball in hand so we’ve selected a back three who can cover a lot of ground and maintain a high level of physicality with Jaz at full-back and Lisa and Lowri on the wings. Keira has made a positive impact coming off the bench so deserves to start at scrum-half while Ffion has a different role this week. Lleucu’s attitude has been excellent and she deserves to get a chance. She’s got a good passing game too. It’s good to see Gwenllian Pyrs in the matchday 23 too having returned to fitness and form in time for the quarter-final.
"We will be playing in front of a huge home crowd and we will need to feed off the atmosphere. To play New Zealand twice in a World Cup is 100% the experience you want to grow as a team – it’s only going to raise our standards short term but also longer term too."
All Blacks World Cup winner and Black Ferns boss Wayne Smith said of Wales: "We found them really tough. We put a reasonably big score against them but it didn't reflect the performances. I thought Wales were extremely good up front. We've got our hands full coming up."
Wales: 15. Jasmine Joyce, 14. Lowri Norkett, 13. Carys Williams-Morris, 12. Hannah Jones (capt), 11. Lisa Neumann, 10. Elinor Snowsill, 9. Keira Bevan, 1. Cara Hope, 2. Carys Phillips, 3. Donna Rose, 4. Natalia John, 5. Gwen Crabb, 6. Bethan Lewis, 7. Alex Callender, 8. Sioned Harries.
Replacements: 16. Kelsey Jones, 17. Gwenllian Pyrs, 18. Sisilia Tuipulotu, 19. Georgia Evans, 20. Siwan Lillicrap, 21. Ffion Lewis, 22. Lleucu George, 23. Megan Webb.
New Zealand: 15. Ruby Tui, 14. Portia Woodman, 13. Stacey Fluhler, 12. Theresa Fitzpatrick, 11. Ayesha Leti-I'Iga, 10. Ruahei Demant (capt), 9. Kendra Cocksedge, 1. Phillipa Love, 2. Georgia Ponsonby, 3. Amy Rule, 4. Maiakawanakaulani Roos, 5. Chelsea Bremner, 6. Alana Bremner, 7. Sarah Hirini, 8. Liana Mikaele-Tu'u.
Replacements: 16. Luka Connor, 17. Krystal Murray, 18. Santo Taumata, 19. Joanah Ngan-Woo, 20. Kennedy Simon, 21. Ariana Bayler, 22. Hazel Tubic, 23. Renee Holmes.
Referee: Aimee Barrett-Theron (SARU)
Assistant referees: Aurélie Groizeleau (FFR) & Julianne Zussman (RC)
TMO: Chris Assmus (RC)
