Warren Gatland has explained why he has preferred Leigh Halfpenny to Liam Williams for Wales' Six Nations opener with Ireland.
Williams was the main surprise omission, overlooked entirely for the match-day 23, when Gatland named his team for Saturday's clash at the Principality Stadium.
Gatland said Williams didn't train with the rest of the squad last week because of injury. But he hinted he could yet feature this weekend as Halfpenny has a tight hip and will be monitored in the coming days.
Either way, Gatland made it clear he feels Williams still has a major role to play over the course of the Six Nations.
Outlining the rationale behind his decision for this weekend, Gatland said: "Couple of things with that. He (Liam) trained today.
"Leigh Halfpenny has a little bit of a tight hip so we kept him out of this morning’s session. He’ll train this afternoon so just making sure he didn’t double up on that.
"Liam hasn’t had a lot of rugby. He had the knock and then the finger injury so he didn’t take part in training last week. We just want to give him some more training time with the team.
"Obviously, if something does happen to Leigh, we’ll make a decision with what happens to that. We had everyone fit and available for selection, but we had some players with bumps and knocks who didn’t take part in training last week.
"That was some of our thinking there. We just want some more training time under his belt. There’s no doubt Liam will feature at some point."
He went on to say Halfpenny's positional sense, as one of the world's foremost defensive full-backs, will be crucial against the kicking game of Ireland scrum-half Jamison Gibson-Park.
"He’s been one of the world’s best defensive full-backs for years. I’ve seen New Zealand teams use clips of him in their review process. It's good to see him back and training well. We have two experienced players in that position," said Gatland.
It is Halfpenny's first Wales start in 19 months, with Williams also not chosen on the wing, where he has featured many times for Wales, or on the bench.
Josh Adams and youngster Rio Dyer start in the back three next to Halfpenny, with Alex Cuthbert an option as replacement. Fly-half Owen Williams and veteran nine Rhys Webb are the other backs on the bench.
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