Tomos Williams to start at scrum-half for Wales against France

Wales head coach Warren Gatland has named scrum-half Tomos Williams in the line-up for the upcoming Six Nations tournament opening game against France to be played at Stade de France on Friday.

Williams has played six Tests for Wales previously but this will be his first outing in the Six Nations and will line-up with Gareth Anscombe at fly-half.

Scarlets pair Hadleigh Parkes and Jonathan Davies will form the midfield partnership while the back three comprises of Josh Adams, George North and Liam Williams. Josh Navidi and Ross Moriarty have recovered from their respective injuries to start in the back-row alongside Justin Tipuric with skipper Alun Wyn Jones in the second-row accompanied by Adam Beard.

Ken Owens is set to make his 61st appearance for Wales making him the country's most capped hooker and will have Rob Evans and Tomas Francis in the front-row.

Liam Williams and Josh Adams have also made sufficient recovery from a broken finger and a hamstring injury respectively to make a start while Leigh Halfpenny, Rhys Patchell and Scott Williams are sidelined with injuries. Gareth Davies gets a place on the bench.

"We are looking forward to kicking off the Six Nations and kicking off our 2019 campaign as a whole," said Wales head coach Warren Gatland.

"We come into the game on an impressive run of results but we know how tough it will be to face France in Paris in the tournament opener.

"It will be a huge contest but we are excited going into it. We have a great deal of experience across the team and on the bench and we want to kick things off well on Friday."

Wales starting XV: Liam Williams, George North, Jonathan Davies, Hadleigh Parkes, Josh Adams, Gareth Anscombe, Tomos Williams, Ross Moriarty, Justin Tipuric, Josh Navidi, Alun Wyn Jones (c), Adam Beard, Tomas Francis, Ken Owens, Rob Evans

Replacements: Elliot Dee, Wyn Jones, Samson Lee, Cory Hill, Aaron Wainwright, Gareth Davies, Dan Biggar, Owen Watkin