THE Dragons trio of Rio Dyer, Elliot Dee and Aaron Wainwright keep their places in the Wales XV to face Ireland in the Six Nations on Saturday, but Taine Basham and Cai Evans miss out.

Warren Gatland has made just one change to the starting line-up from the 16-14 defeat to England at Twickenham with Sam Costelow returning at fly-half for the Dublin clash.

That means utility back Ioan Lloyd drops down to the bench at the expense of 10/15 Evans.

He made an extremely brief appearance of the bench in London to win his second cap and then suffered a dead leg for the Dragons at Glasgow on Saturday after being sent out for game time.

South Wales Argus: RAPID: Rio Dyer on the run for Wales against EnglandRAPID: Rio Dyer on the run for Wales against England (Image: Press Association)

Wing Dyer, hooker Dee and number eight Wainwright retain their spots as expected but Basham drops out of the matchday 23 after winning his 17th cap as a replacement against England, coming on for the last 12 minutes.

The 24-year-old from Talywain misses out because head coach Gatland has opted for the more physical, abrasive option of Cardiff’s uncapped Mackenzie Martin.

Wales, beaten narrowly by Scotland the England, are massive underdogs for Saturday afternoon’s encounter with Grand Slam-chasing Ireland, who won heavily in France and at home to Italy.

Gatland said: “We are excited to go out to Dublin and test ourselves against one of the leading sides in world rugby. It’s a challenge we are relishing.

“We’ve made steps in the last couple of games and now it’s about building on that, learning from those experiences and taking that into this weekend.

“It’s about continuing to work hard, looking for accuracy in our performance across 80 minutes and also keeping our discipline.”

Wales: Cameron Winnett (Cardiff); Josh Adams (Cardiff), George North (Ospreys), Nick Tompkins (Saracens), Rio Dyer (Dragons); Sam Costelow (Scarlets), Tomos Williams (Cardiff); Gareth Thomas (Ospreys), Elliot Dee (Dragons), Keiron Assiratti (Cardiff), Dafydd Jenkins (Exeter), Adam Beard (Ospreys), Alex Mann (Cardiff), Tommy Reffell (Leicester), Aaron Wainwright (Dragons).

Replacements: Ryan Elias (Scarlets), Corey Domachowski (Cardiff), Dillon Lewis (Harlequins), Will Rowlands (Racing 92), Mackenzie Martin (Cardiff), Kieran Hardy (Scarlets), Ioan Lloyd (Scarlets), Mason Grady (Cardiff).