The 26-year-old, who has clocked up 18 EPCR appearances for the Pool B side, is one of six changes by Wales head coach Wayne Pivac to the line-up who defeated Argentina last weekend and joins teammate Ken Owens, the veteran hooker, in the starting XV.

Pivac said: “Josh Macleod’s a player that’s been really unfortunate in the past. We’ve wanted to use him on a couple of occasions, so this is very much third time lucky for him.

“He covers the back row. We know a lot about him - I’ve coached him at the Scarlets. He brings a lot of energy, he’s very strong over the ball and in tandem with Jac Morgan, hopefully that will be a strong part of our game on the weekend.

“We’re looking forward to seeing him go at this level and seeing the physicality that he will bring.”

Dragons are another EPCR Challenge Cup Pool B outfit represented in the Wales pack, with lock Ben Carter called up for his fourth Test start.

In the backs, wing Josh Adams returns to the Wales XV, having missed the first two rounds of the ANS through injury, and so increases the number of players from EPCR Challenge Cup Pool A club Cardiff Rugby to four.

Rhys Priestland starts his second match this November, having been named at fly-half, while his Cardiff teammate, Tomos Williams, is again at scrum-half and prop Dillon Lewis is also retained.

EPCR Challenge Cup side Scarlets are set to celebrate another Welsh international in their squad, after No.8 Josh Macleod was selected to make his Test debut against Georgia in the Autumn Nations Series at the Principality Stadium on Saturday.