Lewis to captain Wales with Williams and Cox out

Kate Williams (left) and Bethan Lewis (right) both play for Gloucester-Hartpury [Huw Evans Picture Agency]

Bethan Lewis will lead Wales against England in the Women's Six Nations on Saturday (14:15 BST) with fellow back rower Kate Williams ruled out through injury.

Williams came off in the second half of the 38-7 defeat by France last weekend with a leg problem and will miss Wales' meeting with the world champions at Ashton Gate.

Alex Callender, Williams' co-captain last year, is still recovering from an ankle injury.

Lewis led Wales against Canada at last summer's World Cup and said: "It's always a massive honour to put on the jersey and to be able to lead the girls out against England."

The England game will come too soon for Wales centre Carys Cox, who was a late withdrawal from the France defeat after taking a knock in training, but head coach Sean Lynn says wing Seren Singleton is fit despite leaving the field with her arm in a sling.

He will name his side on Thursday morning.

"Carys isn't going to be in contention this week, however she will be when we go up against Ireland and Italy," said Lynn.

"Seren has been in training [on Wednesday] and has been training really well, so that's a positive for us."

Wales are searching for their first win in the championship in over two years, but a meeting with the Red Roses, who ran in 12 tries against Scotland, is the tallest of orders before the two-week break in the tournament.

"We have absolutely nothing to lose," said Lewis.

"I think we've shown a lot of progress in terms of performance. Obviously it's not the complete performance that we're working towards, but what better team to go up against than England to really put our stall out?

"We've had a good look at ourselves, taking some learnings from last week, and hopefully we can kick on again this week."