(Reuters) – Coach Warren Gatland says experienced duo Alun Wyn Jones and Justin Tipuric are still in his plans and denies there is a changing of the guard in the Wales squad following their 34-10 Six Nations mauling by Ireland last weekend.
Wales head to Murrayfield to play buoyant Scotland on Saturday but will be without two players who have been stalwart performers for the best part of the last 12 years.
The pair have been axed from the match-day 23 as Gatland made six changes to his starting XV on Thursday.
“We need to think about what’s important in this tournament,” he told reporters. “We still want to do well and Saturday is important. But we need to think long-term in the next seven or eight months. We’ve got a huge disparity between the young players and the caps they (Jones and Tipuric) have.
“We’d spoken to Alun Wyn Jones about not playing all the games as we need to see some youngsters. They’ve been brilliant. We know what they can do. But these other (younger) players, we don’t know if they can handle it.
“That’s our thinking, getting that balance and giving those group of players a chance without too many changes.”
Gatland admits it has opened the door for others to stake a claim for a place at the Rugby World Cup in France later this year.
“We’ve got a group of youngsters who should be thinking they’ve got a chance of holding onto that jersey. The guys should be excited.”
Scotland are coming off a 29-23 victory over England at Twickenham this past weekend and will be favourites for another win.
“I think it’s the strongest Scottish side I’ve seen in terms of depth,” Gatland admitted. “They kept the All Blacks scoreless for 50 minutes in a game they could have won. The comments coming out of their camp is about consistency.
“For us, the goal is starting well. If we take the first 20 minutes out (against Ireland), the score in the second half was 7-7. Andy Farrell said we put them under pressure and stressed them.”
(Reporting by Nick Said, editing by Pritha Sarkar)
