Captain Alun Wyn Jones returns to lead Wales in their final 2018 NatWest 6 Nations match against France on Saturday (KO17.00). Jones comes back into the pack along with Scarlets duo Rob Evans and Ken Owens and flanker Josh Navidi.

The question of WRU governance modernisation is never far from the lips of Welsh rugby fans interested in the sport’s politics. In his latest blog for Dai Sport, Geraint Powell looks at recent developments. Having twice looked at the vexed question of WRU governance modernisation earlier this season (www.dai-sport.com/welsh-rugby-reform-needs-unity-not-war-money-men-blazers/) (http://www.dai-sport.com/gareth-daviess-wru-reforms-must-mean-one-thing-leads-another/), it was interesting to receive news this week of considerable progress at the last WRU board meeting.

Gareth Davies will run through his own showreel before he returns to Twickenham on Saturday – just to remind himself how good it feels to beat England. The Wales scrum-half will allow himself an indulgent re-run of his match-turning moment against the old enemy during the 2015 World Cup. The Scarlets No.9 – the form scrum-half in Europe this season – scored a stunning try eight minutes from time at Twickenham to put Wales in touching distance of toppling the World Cup hosts.

Wales have named an unchanged starting XV from the side that beat Scotland in their NatWest 6 Nations opener for their game against England at Twickenham on Saturday (KO 16.45). There is just one change amongst the replacements with British & Irish Lion George North returning to wear jersey 23.

Gareth Davies has admitted players have to be “squeaky clean” as his Scarlets side prepare to face a Toulon team likely to be without France star Mathieu Bastareaud. Powerhouse centre Bastareaud faces a lengthy ban when he appears before an ERC disciplinary panel on Wednesday after making a homophobic remark to an opponent during his club’s win over Benetton Treviso last Sunday. If found guilty then the Toulon player is set to miss his club’s European Champions Cup showdown against the Scarlets on Saturday and could be absent for a chunk of the Six Nations.

What’s that thundering noise? Must be two sets of replacement front row forwards just about to come off the bench for both sides. Peter Jackson backs the calls from WRU chairman Gareth Davies to reduce rugby’s flood tide of substitutions in a bid to solve the game’s injury crisis. The first substitution at Test level took place 50 years ago next summer and involved one all-time great replacing another – Mike Gibson for an injured Barry John. What began at Loftus Versfeld during the South Africa-Lions series of 1968 as a trickle has long since turned into a flood of biblical proportion. Nobody could have envisaged the devastation that would be unleashed by the human equivalent of a buffalo herd stampeding through every Test match.

Wales scrum-half Aled Davies is to become the second current international to leave the Scarlets for the Ospreys. The 25-year-old – who started for Wales against South Africa last Saturday – will join Scott Williams in moving from the current Guinness Pro14 champions to join their struggling neighbours. Like Williams, five-times capped Davies wants more starting time, having found himself in the shadow of fellow Wales international Gareth Davies.

Wales open their autumn Test series against Australia this week and the statistical omens are not good. Geraint Powell says the two nations may be moving closer together off the field, but the divide between them on it is likely to be maintained. On Saturday, the Wallabies will play Wales for the 14th time during the Warren Gatland era, winning every match since an initial defeat in November 2008. Australian and Welsh rugby have, historically, been worlds apart in a cultural sense. 

Wales will name some new faces to face Australia on Saturday, but there will be few surprises, says Robin Davey, who also expects a very familiar outcome in favour of the Wallabies. Wales are hoping it’ll be lucky 13 when they take on perennial opponents Australia and get their autumn series off to a much-needed winning start at the Principality Stadium on Saturday. The countdown to the 2019 World Cup really does start now and that is reflected in the number of new, and relatively new, players head coach Warren Gatland has chosen in his squad.

Welsh Rugby Union chairman Gareth Davies is grappling with reform of the game and has already declared an intention to slim down a bloated system. But Geraint Powell argues it’s how the various parts of that system fit together that really counts. Last month, I looked at the question of Welsh Rugby Union governance modernisation (http://www.dai-sport.com/welsh-rugby-reform-needs-unity-not-war-money-men-blazers/), particularly the need to build aligned devolved/decentralised regional board structures to help underpin the WRU board and to replace the outdated and non-aligned WRU districts system. This will facilitate the member clubs electing a slimmed down strategic main WRU board based on director skill-sets in business as well as rugby. 

You may have been here before. But as the subject of governance modernisation returns to the top of Welsh rugby’s agenda, Geraint Powell recalls previous failed attempts and sets out the core principles behind any success this time around. If so many have recognised for so long that Welsh rugby requires fundamental governance modernisation, why has it proven so damnably difficult to achieve? There has been some useful tinkering in recent years, including the creation of four sub-boards and, following the review by former High Court judge Sir Robert Owen, the addition of two non-executive directors.  But the latter actually increased the size of the WRU board from 18 to 20 and further away from the 8-12 person board, based on skill sets, that is now considered best practice.

Wales have already drawn up a shortlist of three men to take over from Warren Gatland as head coach when he leaves after the 2019 World Cup. Gatland, who has been Wales boss since 2008, will leave his adopted home after the tournament in Japan and Welsh Rugby Union chairman Gareth Davies told delegates at the AGM that a global search for his replacement is already well underway. Eight men from across the world have been interviewed for the position, with WRU bosses narrowing those applicants to just three in recent weeks.