Wales head coach Steve Tandy has reverted to the Ben Thomas-Max Llewellyn midfield partnership for Saturday's Nations Championship match against South Africa in Durban, the same pairing he chose for his first two games in charge last November. This comes after the Joe Hawkins-Eddie James combination, which had held the starting spots for seven consecutive matches, struggled defensively during the tournament, with pundits questioning whether Wales are missing an opportunity to add more physicality against a powerful Springboks centre pairing.

Tandy has now used five different centre partnerships across his 12 games in charge, reflecting ongoing uncertainty over his best combination. Former Wales and Lions centre Jonathan Davies said the Hawkins-James pairing "hasn't fired as we hoped" after missed tackles and defensive gaps, with Wales conceding 38 clean breaks in the first two rounds of the Nations Championship against Fiji and Argentina. Davies suggested James could switch to fly-half's inside partner at 12 with Llewellyn adding bulk at 13, while former fly-half Gareth Anscombe noted Wales' attack, shaped by Matt Sherratt, is currently lacking go-forward ball and struggling to make ground centrally.