Uncapped Dragons Owen and Hope included in Wales' 39-man Nations Championship squad
Wales named a 39-strong squad for the Nations Championship on 20 October 2026 that includes Dragons centre Aneurin Owen and scrum-half Che Hope. Steve Tandy selected the group for the November Tests and appointed hooker Dewi Lake as captain.
The head coach has summoned Dragons lock Seb Davies and Cardiff number eight Taine Basham for the first time since he took charge of the national side. Cardiff loose-head prop Rhys Barratt, who featured in the summer fixture against the Barbarians, is the third uncapped player in the squad, while Dragons wing Rio Dyer has been recalled. Leicester flanker Tommy Reffell and Taulupe Faletau are among the notable omissions. The squad contains 14 players from clubs in England plus Montpellier lock Adam Beard, with seven call-ups for Cardiff and Scarlets, six for Dragons and four from Ospreys.
Owen, 26, was a member of the Wales squad in the summer of 2021 but did not feature in the Tests against Canada or Argentina and has been a key member of the Dragons as they built on an encouraging 2025-26 with a promising start to the season. He is selected to cover the midfield in the absence of injured Cardiff centre Ben Thomas and joins Eddie James, Joe Hawkins, Max Llewellyn and Louie Hennessey as midfield options.
Hope, 23, has been brought into his first international camp and will join Tomos Williams and Reuben Morgan-Williams in the scrum-half department while Kieran Hardy faces a lengthy lay-off after a knee injury. That trio forms the specialist half-back options named in the squad.
There is no place for Scarlets wing Macs Page despite his form, but Dyer, 26, who has 24 caps, returns to the squad; the most recent of his caps came against South Africa last November. Leicester's Gabriel Hamer-Webb, who made his Wales debut against Scotland in the Six Nations, also returns after missing out in the summer.
Davies, who moved from Cardiff to Dragons in the summer of 2025, will be aiming to win his first cap since the 2022 Six Nations. Taine Basham, described in the selection notes as having started the season strongly for Cardiff, is preferred ahead of Faletau, who made his first appearance of the season for Cardiff at Northampton on Sunday. Reffell, who featured in the summer Tests and has been in strong form for Leicester, is left out amid Wales' back-row competition.
Locks Dafydd Jenkins, tight-heads Tomas Francis and Archie Griffin, hooker Liam Belcher and centre Louie Hennessey return after being unavailable for the July Tests against Fiji, Argentina and South Africa. Belcher gets the nod ahead of Elliot Dee, the leading try scorer in the United Rugby Championship (URC), as the third hooker behind captain Lake and Ryan Elias. Tandy said: "It's great to welcome back the players who were unavailable for the first three rounds of the Nations Championship. Added to that, there are a number of players who've been in great form for their clubs and so we wanted to give them an opportunity in the squad this autumn." Forwards: Rhys Barratt, Rhys Carre, Nicky Smith, Gareth Thomas, Dewi Lake (capt), Liam Belcher, Ryan Elias, Tomas Francis, Archie Griffin, Dillon Lewis, Adam Beard, Ben Carter, Seb Davies, Dafydd Jenkins, Teddy Williams, Taine Basham, James Botham, Kane James, Alex Mann, Jac Morgan, Taine Plumtree, Aaron Wainwright. Backs: Che Hope, Reuben Morgan-Williams, Tomos Williams, Sam Costelow, Dan Edwards, Joe Hawkins, Louie Hennessey, Eddie James, Max Llewellyn, Aneurin Owen, Josh Adams, Rio Dyer, Gabriel Hamer-Webb, Ellis Mee, Blair Murray, Louis Rees-Zammit, Tom Rogers.
Wales will face Japan, New Zealand and Australia in Cardiff and finish the campaign against a southern hemisphere opponent on finals weekend at Twickenham, and there is URC action this weekend with Taine Plumtree and centre Joe Hawkins allowed to travel to South Africa with Scarlets for their fixture against the Stormers on Saturday.