CARDIFF, Wales (AP) — Wales will debut New Zealand-born winger Blair Murray against a Fiji restocked with its European backline stars for their autumn rugby test on Sunday.
Murray qualified through his mother. He's played six times for Scarlets and scored tries in their last two matches.
“He came through the New Zealand pathway,” coach Warren Gatland said on Friday. “We were pretty excited when he committed to us. He gives us a left-footed option which we haven't had in a while. He gets touches and defends well.”
Murray was in a backline refurbished after the 2-0 series loss to the Wallabies in Australia in July.
Experienced halves Tomos Williams and Gareth Anscombe return. Anscombe last appeared at the Rugby World Cup more than a year ago. Ben Thomas, the flyhalf in July, moves out one spot.
Gloucester center Max Llewellyn will play his third test after debuting in the World Cup warmups. Mason Grady, the inside center in July, is out on the wing.
Locks Adam Beard and Will Rowlands return after missing the summer tour.
Tighthead prop Archie Griffin, who debuted in the Six Nations, also starts. He suffered from a previously unknown heart condition in September while in action for his Bath club. When he was finally cleared, he came off the bench last weekend to prove his fitness.
Gatland went for a 6-2 split on the bench to ease the load on the forwards because both props, Griffin and Gareth Thomas, Beard, and backup flanker Jac Morgan haven't played a lot lately.
Meanwhile, Fiji welcomed back its European-based players on Friday after they were unavailable to play Scotland last weekend because that match was outside the international window. Fiji lost 57-17 at Murrayfield.
Co-captain Waisea Nayacalevu and Josua Tuisova fill the midfield, and Semi Radradra and Jiuta Wainiqolo are on the wings.
Sireli Maqala, the Bayonne center who made the French Top 14 team of the month in September and October, could make only the reserves.
The forwards have been bolstered by Saracens loosehead Eroni Mawi and Northampton lock Temo Mayanavanua.
Wales, yet to win this year, is hoping to avoid a 10th straight defeat which would match its record from 2002-03. Wales has won its last six matches against Fiji, including a thriller at the World Cup last year, and never lost at home to the Fijians.
Lineups:
Wales: Cameron Winnett, Mason Grady, Max Llewellyn, Ben Thomas, Blair Murray, Gareth Anscombe, Tomos Williams; Aaron Wainwright, Tommy Reffell, Taine Plumtree, Adam Beard, Will Rowlands, Archie Griffin, Dewi Lake (captain), Gareth Thomas. Reserves: Ryan Elias, Nicky Smith, Keiron Assiratti, Christ Tshiunza, James Botham, Jac Morgan, Ellis Bevan, Sam Costelow.
Fiji: Vuate Karawalevu, Jiuta Wainiqolo, Waisea Nayacalevu (co-captain), Josua Tuisova, Semi Radradra, Caleb Muntz, Frank Lomani; Elia Canakaivata, Kitione Salawa, Ratu Meli Derenalagi, Temo Mayanavanua, Isoa Nasilasila, Samuela Tawake, Tevita Ikanivere (co-captain), Eroni Mawi. Reserves: Sam Matavesi, Haereiti Hetet, Jone Koroiduadua, Mesake Vocevoce, Albert Tuisue, Simi Kuruvoli, Isaiah Ravula, Sireli Maqala.
AP rugby: https://apnews.com/hub/rugby
FILE - Wales' Gareth Anscombe kicks a penalty during the Rugby World Cup Pool C match between Wales and Australia at the OL Stadium in Lyon, France, Sept. 24, 2023. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena, File)
BASEL, Switzerland (AP) — Ukraine’s musicians can’t escape war, even at the Eurovision Song Contest.
Rock band Ziferblat were in Basel, Switzerland to represent their country when they learned the home of backing singer Khrystyna Starykova in a frontline region of eastern Ukraine had been destroyed by Russian shelling.
“She’s so strong,” said guitarist Valentyn Leshchynskyi, who formed Ziferblat with his vocalist twin brother Daniil and drummer Fedir Khodakov. “She is 19 years old only, but the impact of this situation — I think she won’t give up.
“Of course it’s difficult when you’re losing your flat while you need to stay calm to celebrate here because it’s a musical festival, it’s not about the war.”
The band is set to compete for Ukraine in Saturday’s Eurovision grand final with “Bird of Pray,” a song whose intense vocals and prog rock sound owe something to the 1970s – as does the bell-bottomed pink suit Daniil Leshchynskyi wore in Tuesday’s semi-final.
Valentyn Leshchynskyi said the lyrical message of loss and hope, centered on a phoenix-like bird, resonates with what Ukrainians experienced in recent years.
“We want to build a dream on the stage – even for three minutes, for Ukrainians – like the war will be over in the very near future,” he told The Associated Press.
Ukraine is a longtime Eurovision competitor – as was its neighbor Russia. Both saw their relationship with the continental pop contest transformed by Moscow’s full-scale invasion three years ago.
Russia was kicked out of Eurovision. Ukrainian folk-rap group Kalush Orchestra won the 2022 contest less than three months after the invasion. Winning brought the right to host the contest the following year. When war made that impossible, Liverpool stepped in to stage Eurovision with a distinctly Ukrainian flavor, decking out the English city in blue and yellow Ukrainian flags.
Even before the full-scale invasion, Ukraine used Eurovision for cultural diplomacy, as a way to tell the world about their country’s history, music and language. Ukrainian singer Jamala won the contest in 2016 — two years after Russia illegally seized Crimea — with a song about the expulsion of Crimean Tatars by Stalin in 1944. Kalush Orchestra’s winning song “Stefania” blended rapping in Ukrainian with a haunting refrain on a traditional Ukrainian wind instrument.
Now the message is that Ukraine is still standing, and still fighting.
Daniil admitted to feeling a “little bit of pressure” ahead of Saturday. But he said it was “such a privilege” to represent Ukraine.
“We have two missions here,” his brother Valentyn said. One is to come out at or near the top in Saturday’s 26-nation musical showdown. The other is “to remind Europeans about the war.”
As part of its Eurovision journey, the band is fundraising to buy robotic de-mining systems to help clear an area of Ukraine he says is 3 1/2 times the size of Switzerland.
Ziferblat’s trip to Eurovision coincided with Vyshyvanka Day — the third Thursday in May, when Ukrainians around the world wear traditional embroidered shirts as a symbol of national pride.
The band members joined scores of Ukrainians clad in elaborately stitched vyshyvanka in a Basel park to eat borscht, sing Ukrainian songs and cheer on the band ahead of Saturday’s final.
“This is a day that is gathering all Ukrainians together,” Valentyn said. “In Kyiv, the capital, everyone is wearing these shirts and going to the streets celebrating and you feel like a united nation for one day.”
Associated Press journalist Kwiyeon Ha contributed to this story.
Eurovision competitor band Ziferblat from Ukraine eats traditional food during a family meeting of Ukrainian people in a park in Basel as part of the 69th Eurovision Song Contest week, in Basel, Switzerland, Thursday, May 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner)
People from Ukraine hold a giant Ukrainian flag during a family meeting with their Eurovision band Ziferblat in a park in Basel as part of the 69th Eurovision Song Contest week, in Basel, Switzerland, Thursday, May 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner)
Ziferblat from Ukraine performs the song "Bird of Pray" during the first semi-final of the 69th Eurovision Song Contest, in Basel, Switzerland, Tuesday, May 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner)
Eurovision competitor band Ziferblat from Ukraine gives an interview to the Associated Press during a family meeting of Ukrainian people in a park in Basel as part of the 69th Eurovision Song Contest week, in Basel, Switzerland, Thursday, May 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner)
Eurovision band Ziferblat of Ukraine sings their national anthem with Ukrainian people during a family meeting in a park in Basel as part of the 69th Eurovision Song Contest week, in Basel, Switzerland, Thursday, May 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner)
