Aaron Wainwright ruled out of Wales’ All Blacks clash

Aaron Wainwright has withdrawn from the Wales team to play New Zealand because of a hip injury.

The 61-times capped Dragons back-rower is replaced at number eight by Taine Plumtree.

Uncapped Morgan Morse joins the replacements as Wales seek to end a run of 33 consecutive defeats against the All Blacks at Principality Stadium on Saturday.

Wales head coach Steve Tandy said: “We’ve been managing Aaron’s training load this week.

“Following assessment again today (Friday) we have taken the decision to remove him from playing on Saturday.”

Wales trained at the Principality Stadium on Friday and Scarlets winger Tom Rogers is relishing the opportunity to play against the All Blacks for the first time.

Rogers said: “We’re obviously the underdogs, but in the Principality Stadium the crowd’s always going to be on our side.

“We know they are a class outfit, there’s no hiding from that.

“But we play rugby to win and that’s what we’re looking to do.”

Wales have not beaten New Zealand since 1953 and both sides are keen to bounce back from disappointing displays last weekend.

The All Blacks suffered a 33-19 defeat to England that led to a lot of criticism back in New Zealand from media and supporters.

Underwhelming

Wales produced an underwhelming performance in their last-gasp 24-23 victory over Japan after losing their autumn opener against Argentina two weeks ago.

Rogers said: “We’re going to try and attack as much as we can and add layers each game.

“Maybe it wasn’t there last week, but we’re definitely going to bring it this week.

“We had a good training session, a good training week, quite excited.

“It’s obviously going to be a big challenge, but we’re looking forward to it.

“To face the All Black is a privilege and we’re excited, we just need to put our game on the pitch