George North will win his 100th Wales cap in Saturday’s Six Nations clash against England at the Principality Stadium.
At 28 years and 320 days, he will eclipse Australia captain Michael Hooper by four weeks as the youngest player to reach a century of caps for their country.
North and Jonathan Davies form Wales’ centre pairing, having recovered from foot and ankle injuries respectively, while wing Josh Adams returns after serving a two-match ban for breaching coronavirus protocols.
Elsewhere, Liam Williams moves from wing to full-back, replacing Leigh Halfpenny, Kieran Hardy is preferred to Gareth Davies at scrum-half and flanker Josh Navidi also starts.
Halfpenny failed a head injury assessment against Scotland 12 days ago after going off just before half-time.
Wales head coach Wayne Pivac has made five changes and one positional switch from the side that won 25-24 at Murrayfield.
It will be Navidi’s first Wales start since the Six Nations game against England at Twickenham almost a year ago, while Hardy has not previously featured in the tournament.
Victory for Wales over England would clinch the Triple Crown and keep Pivac’s team firmly on a Six Nations title course heading into appointments with Italy and France next month.
Pivac said: “Saturday is a great milestone for George. It is a huge achievement at his age and we are looking forward to seeing him in action.
“We’ve had a great two weeks leading into this game and we are looking forward to Saturday.
“We continue to build and we know there is plenty left in us in terms of improvements from the opening two rounds. We want to continue to improve, performance-wise.”
— Welsh Rugby Union (@WelshRugbyUnion) February 25, 2021
Wales team to play England
Forwards: 1 Wyn Jones, 2 Ken Owens, 3 Tomas Francis, 4 Adam Beard, 5 Alun Wyn Jones (CAPTAIN), 6 Josh Navidi, 7 Justin Tipuric, 8 Taulupe Faletau
Backs: 9 Kieran Hardy, 10 Dan Biggar, 11 Josh Adams, 12 Jonathan Davies, 13 George North, 14 Louis Rees-Zammit, 15 Liam Williams
Replacements: 16 Elliot Dee, 17 Rhodri Jones, 18 Leon Brown, 19 Cory Hill, 20 James Botham, 21 Gareth Davies, 22 Callum Sheedy, 23 Uilisi Halaholo