TAINE Basham is the last of the Dragons back-rowers in the Wales squad standing after injury ruled Aaron Wainwright out of Sunday's clash with Fiji at Cardiff's Principality Stadium.

Basham, who shone against New Zealand and South Africa, starts at number eight this weekend alongside blindside and captain Ellis Jenkins and openside Thomas Young.

After naming his matchday squad, Wales head coach Wayne Pivac revealed that Wainwright had "taken a bump" to his shoulder in the defeat by the Springboks last time out.

However, the Kiwi did state that Wainwright "is on track to be good to go" for the final game of Wales' autumn series against Australia next weekend.

Wainwright's injury follows that of fellow Dragon Ross Moriarity, who was forced off with a shoulder problem during the All Blacks defeat.

Dragons lock Will Rowlands keeps his place in the team to tackle Fiji, one of Wales' World Cup group opponents in two years' time.

Meanwhile, teenage Exeter Chiefs lock Christ Tshiunza is set to win his first cap after being named on the bench, with Pivac making five changes to the starting line-up from last Saturday.

Only one of the changes is in the pack, with Cardiff-bound Young slotting in at openside to play in a home Test for the first time.

Scrum-half Kieran Hardy gets his first opportunity of the Autumn Nations Series and Johnny Williams returns to the centre, where he will be joined by Josh Adams.

With Adams switching from the wing, Louis Rees-Zammit moves to the left flank, allowing Ospreys’ Alex Cuthbert another opportunity on the Test stage, four years after his last cap.

Scarlets full-back Liam Williams returns to the line-up having last started for Wales in the defeat to France in the 2021 Six Nations.

Loosehead Gareth Thomas and fly-half Callum Sheedy will look to make their first appearances of the campaign from the bench.

Commenting on the prospect of Tshiunza making his debut, Pivac said; “He’s come in, he’s trained well and with Ben Carter at 20 years of age and Christ at 19, it’s very exciting.

“We’re looking at him as a player, in the future, who can hopefully cover two positions, in the second row and at six.

“We’re really looking forward to seeing him out there. He’ll be full of energy, he’s very excited about the opportunity and he’s one for the future.”

Reflecting on last week’s performance against South Africa, he added: “It was a much-improved performance from the week before.

“A game where we led for the first 70 minutes and it was really our own undoing with a little bit of a lapse in discipline and a couple of penalties towards the end.

“I thought defensively we worked really hard. There was a lot to be pleased about.

“We would have loved to have won the match, we were disappointed with the end result, but there were a lot of positives to take out of the game.

“We want to be able to use our squad where we can. In terms of the forwards, we don’t have a lot of options with injuries and unavailability.

“The exciting one is Josh Adams getting an opportunity. That’s really looking at the future.

“When you have to pick a World Cup squad of 33, you’ve got to have players that can play in more than one position and we’ve been wanting to do it for a while so we’ll see how Josh goes in the midfield.

“Fiji are big, powerful and very quick out wide. The introduction of Alex Cuthbert, along with Louis Rees-Zammit, is an eye on the speed that the Fijians will bring and we need to be able to match that.

"The offloading game that they bring is certainly different to the South Africans.

“They are a good side. They’re a much-improved side of some of the Fiji teams of old, certainly since when I was involved with Fiji they’ve come a long way.”

Wales team to face Fiji on Sunday

15 Liam Williams (Scarlets); 14 Alex Cuthbert (Ospreys), 13 Josh Adams (Cardiff), 12 Johnny Williams (Scarlets), 11 Louis Rees-Zammit (Gloucester); 10 Dan Biggar (Northampton Saints), 9 Kieran Hardy (Scarlets); 1 Rhys Carré (Cardiff), 2 Ryan Elias (Scarlets), 3 Tomas Francis (Ospreys), 4 Will Rowlands (Dragons), 5 Adam Beard (Ospreys), 6 Ellis Jenkins (Cardiff Rugby – captain), 7 Thomas Young (Wasps), 8 Taine Basham (Dragons).

Replacements: 16 Bradley Roberts (Ulster), 17 Gareth Thomas (Ospreys), 18 WillGriff John (Scarlets), 19 Christ Tshiunza (Exeter Chiefs), 20 Seb Davies (Cardiff), 21 Tomos Williams (Cardiff), 22 Callum Sheedy (Bristol Bears).