WALES boss Warren Gatland has warned his World Cup hopefuls that Test chances to shine will be at a premium ahead of his final cut for Japan.

On Tuesday the head coach named six Dragons in his 42-strong squad for summer training camps in Switzerland and Turkey.

Hooker Elliot Dee, lock Cory Hill and back row forwards Ross Moriarty and Aaron Wainwright featured prominently in the Six Nations Grand Slam while Cardiff Blues-bound wing Hallam Amos made just one outing, a cameo against Italy in Rome.

Tighthead Leon Brown was a member of the squad for the championship but did not add to his tally of five caps, the last of which was against Tonga in the autumn.

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The squad start to convene at the end of this month and start preparations for double-headers against England and Ireland, with Gatland trimming his group to 31 between the Cardiff clash with the Irish on August 31 and the Dublin return on September 7.

Dee, Hill and Moriarty look sure to make the cut for Japan while Wainwright looks to be in pole position in his tussle with the fit-again Aaron Shingler and openside James Davies to be the fifth back rower.

With George North, Leigh Halfpenny, Liam Williams and Josh Adams looking safe, Amos is battling with fellow speedsters Jonah Holmes, Owen Lane and Steff Evans, although Gatland may stick with four specialists with fly-half Gareth Anscombe covering full-back.

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Brown, back to fitness after a broken thumb, has work to do – the 22-year-old is behind Tomas Francis, Dillon Lewis and Samson Lee in the pecking order.

Gatland has opted against going with a large squad – believing it is more beneficial for the coaching team to concentrate their efforts on prime contenders rather than fringe figures – and will have a different approach to the summer Tests than in 2011 and 2015.

“We’ve got three warm-up games before we pick the squad before the last game against Ireland,” he said.

“We’re in a different place at the moment, in 2015 we were looking at building depth. We feel like we’ve got a lot of depth at the moment.

“We have 18 players with World Cup experience in the squad so it’s a matter of planning what we’re going to do. It might not be so much of mix and matching in the warm-up games.

“If I look at the World Cup, we’ll probably go fully loaded against Georgia, Australia and Fiji and potentially make changes for Uruguay.

“We may need to replicate that in the warm-up games, so it might not involve making too many changes and mean some players might not get the same opportunities.”

Wales will head into the England and Ireland double-headers on a record 14-Test winning streak.

Eddie Jones' men racked up 18 victories on the spin between 2015 and 2017 to match the All Blacks' run between 2015 and 2016.