He will win his fourth cap against Ireland as Wales look to salvage some positives from an RBS 6 Nations to forget thus far, having already lost to both England and France.

"It's nice to keep the number nine jersey," Rees said. "Obviously it's a big pat on the back for myself but Mike's been out injured for a while and he's struggling with a dead leg now.

"But with the likes of Mike, Dwayne and Coops who've got the caps and experience it's nice to keep the spot.

"They've got some fantastic players in that side but we've done quite a bit of analysis on them this week.

"We've looked at the French game especially and we've picked out areas we think we can exploit."