Rugby World Cup: Wales make four changes for New Zealand quarter-final

Wales have made four changes for their Rugby World Cup quarter-final against defending champions New Zealand.

Prop Donna Rose returns from her one-week suspension, while Carys Phillips is preferred at hooker.

New Zealand have named a strong side, with Stacey Fluhler, Ruby Tui and Portia Woodman all returning to the XV.

The two sides met in round two of the pool stage, when the Black Ferns ran in 10 tries in their 56-12 victory.

They are drawn together once more after New Zealand finished as top seeds, with three bonus-point wins from three, while Wales scraped through as the eighth seed with just one win over Scotland.

Bevan was Wales’ hero in that game after kicking an 84th-minute penalty, and she earns the number nine jersey from Ffion Lewis.

Hannah Jones captains Wales for the third time in the tournament, with squad captain Siwan Lillicrap on the bench alongside prop Gwenllian Pyrs and Lleucu George who are both in line to make their competition debuts.

As well as bringing in their world-class backs, the Black Ferns also revert to the half-back partnership of Kendra Cocksedge and Ruahei Demant, with Chelsea Bremner returning to the back row.

Co-captain Kennedy Simon is back from injury and will make her World Cup debut from the bench.

Wales head coach Ioan Cunningham said: “We have a tough task on Saturday facing the Black Ferns on their home patch. 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 set-piece dominance in our Pool game against them but we also created quite a few chances, many of which we did not convert.”

New Zealand assistant coach Wesley Clarkesaid: “We are going to get some mauls and some good scrums, where they really challenged us last time, so that is a good thing.

“There was a lot of stuff in our last game that was not up to our standards so that is what we have been focusing on this week.”

New Zealand: Ruby Tui; Portia Woodman, Stacey Fluhler, Theresa Fitzpatrick, Ayesha Leti-I’Iga; Ruahei Demant (capt), Kendra Cocksedge; Phillipa Love, Georgia Ponsonby, Amy Rule, Maiakawanakaulani Roos, Chelsea Bremner, Alana Bremner, Sarah Hirini, Liana Mikaele-Tu’u

Replacements: Luka Connor, Krystal Murray, Santo Taumata, Joanah Ngan-Woo, Kennedy Simon, Ariana Bayler, Hazel Tubic, Renee Holmes

Wales: Jasmine Joyce; Lowri Norkett, Carys Williams-Morris, Hannah Jones (capt), Lisa Neumann; Elinor Snowsill, Keira Bevan; Cara Hope, Carys Phillips, Donna Rose, Natalia John, Gwen Crabb, Bethan Lewis, Alex Callender, Sioned Harries

Replacements: Kelsey Jones, Gwenllian Pyrs, Sisilia Tuipulotu, Georgia Evans, Siwan Lillicrap, Ffion Lewis, Lleucu George, Meg Webb.

Referee: Aimee Barrett-Theron (SARU)

Assistant referees: Aurélie Groizeleau (FFR) & Julianne Zussman (RC)

TMO: Chris Assmus (RC)