Wales have named a record nine players based outside the country in their starting line-up to face Japan in Cardiff on Saturday.

Wales begin the autumn section of their Nations Championship campaign against the side they beat in the summer of 2025 to finally end a painful 20-month losing streak and head coach Steve Tandy will be confident of building on the slowly increasing optimism that come since then.

Yet nine of Tandy’s starting XV playing their club rugby in England will cause some controversy. The Gloucester trio of Dewi Lake, Jac Morgan and Max Llewellyn are joined by Louis Rees-Zammit (Bristol), Tomos Williams (Saracens), Nicky Smith (Sale), Archie Griffin (Bath), Dafydd Jenkins (Exeter) and Aaron Wainwright (Leicester) – with a number of them being in superb form to start the season.

Three more Gallagher Prem players are on the bench and the selection represents a huge change since the 60-cap rule for players outside Wales to be eligible to pull on the red jersey was lowered to 25 caps in February 2023. By contrast, only six England-based players were in the 33-strong Wales squad at the 2023 World Cup in France.

But Tandy insists Wales must embrace selecting England-based personnel.

“Ultimately it doesn’t matter where they play, it’ll be the best players selected,” he said. “It shows that our players are in demand and that other leagues value them.

“What’s encouraging is that many of them are performing really well in those environments. Of course, I’d love every Welsh player to be based in Wales, but that’s not the reality of the current situation.

“We can either complain about having 20 players playing overseas, or we can recognise the benefits. There are always positives, although there are also things we potentially lose.”

Tandy’s selection also features a centre pairing of Llewellyn and Eddie James one of the biggest combinations Wales have ever fielded in the centres.

The two have never started a Test together and Gloucester back Llewellyn has only limited experience of playing inside centre for his country, with his one previous start at 12 coming on debut, against England in a World Cup warm-up game in August 2023. Yet he will pull on the No 12 jersey, with Scarlets centre James outside him at 13.

According to the official Welsh Rugby Union website, Llewellyn stands 6ft 6in and weighs 16st 12lbs, while the 6ft 4in James tips the scales at 16st 3lbs.

Tandy added: “There’s lots of competition for position within the squad, which is where we want to be. We’re excited to be to back at home. We want to go out there on Saturday, put our mark on the match and start the next phase in our Nations Championship campaign strongly.”

Tandy embarks on his second full season in charge after three wins and nine defeats for Wales in his first 12 months.

Japan, two spots below 10th-placed Wales in the world rankings, are the first Nations Championship visitors to Cardiff this month, with New Zealand and Australia to follow before finals weekend at Allianz Stadium, Twickenham.

Wales began the competition in the summer by beating Fiji in Cardiff before losing in Argentina and South Africa and Tandy has made seven changes from the 43-0 defeat to South Africa in July.

Tighthead prop Griffin and second row Jenkins make their first appearances in the competition after injury, while Smith makes his first start of the championship at loosehead prop.

Hooker Lake captains again and Ben Carter joins Jenkins in the second row, with Alex Mann named at blindside flanker in a back row that also includes Morgan and Wainwright.

Williams and Sam Costelow are the half-backs, with Rees-Zammit and Josh Adams on the wings and Blair Murray at full-back.

Wales team to face Japan: 15. Blair Murray, 14. Louis Rees-Zammit, 13. Eddie James, 12. Max Llewellyn, 11. Josh Adams, 10. Sam Costelow, 9. Tomos Williams, 8. Aaron Wainwright, 7. Jac Morgan, 6. Alex Mann, 5. Ben Carter, 4. Dafydd Jenkins, 3. Archie Griffin, 2. Dewi Lake (captain), 1. Nicky Smith

Replacements: 16. Ryan Elias, 17. Rhys ‌Carre, 18. Tomas ​Francis, 19. Teddy Williams, 20. James ‌Botham, 21. Reuben Morgan-Williams, ​22. Dan Edwards, 23. Louie Hennessey