Wales head coach Warren Gatland says he understands criticism of the uncapped fixture against the Barbarians on Saturday.

The four regions are providing the 23 Wales players.

"I understand the issues involved in that," said Gatland.

"We are conscious of that and that is why I was doing everything I could to support the regions by only picking 23 players in the original squad.

"We could have, as would have been in our normal situation, picked 33 or 34 but that would have taken another nine players out of the regions in terms of them being available for those teams."

To emphasise the unity Wales trained against Dragons at the Principality Stadium on Thursday.

Critics of the Barbarians game view it as a meaningless friendly which undermines the Welsh domestic game on a league weekend.

The Welsh Rugby Union (WRU) says more than 60% of its turnover comes from gate receipts from international matches and that games are essential for the financial future of Welsh rugby.

Wales would normally have four home games in November. That is not the case in 2023 because it is a World Cup year, although there were two pre-tournament warm-up matches, against England and South Africa, held in Cardiff in August.

"We have come out of a couple of pretty tough years with Covid and everyone is talking about the funding and how everyone is finding that difficult," said Gatland.

"This game is definitely about generating some more revenue."

Celebrating the legends

The game will also be a chance to celebrate the careers of Leigh Halfpenny, Alun Wyn Jones and Justin Tipuric.

After announcing they were quitting international rugby in May, which ruled them out of the World Cup, Jones and Tipuric will line up for the Barbarians, while Halfpenny will play one last time for Wales after being part of Gatland's squad in France.

"It is something we have spoken about this week, there is going to be some recognition of those players," said Gatland.

"When I had that conversation with Justin and he retired from international rugby, we spoke about this game being an opportunity for him to be involved.

"He gets the chance with the Barbarians to recognise his contribution, and Alun Wyn and Leigh.

"They get that chance to call time on their career, that is their choice and I fully respect that and back them. That is their choice, other people have coaches make that decision.

"Hopefully it is a good occasion for those three players."

Marseille memories

It is the first time Wales have met up since the World Cup quarter-final defeat against Argentina in Marseille in October.

Gatland's side had won all four games in the pool, including a record 40-6 win against Australia in Lyon, before bowing out in the last eight.

"I know there was a lot of people writing us off beforehand [prior to the World Cup]," said Gatland.

"We said about doing something special, I don't think we quite did something special. We were good.

"The performance against Australia... you couldn't have asked for any better in terms of the way a game was managed.

"We were gutted about the way we played against Argentina. They are a difficult team to put away, and we probably didn't manage that as well as we could have done.

"There have been a lot of learnings from that: whether we were on edge enough, whether there was a little bit of pressure off us in the fact we had won the group and probably relieved a bit of that pressure.

"We're pretty disappointed when you are given a chance like that, you don't end up in the semi-finals.

"That hurt for a while. It is something we can't forget, not talk about and discuss. We talk about setting standards and the expectation for us as a group to grow and perform."

Gatland has asked Wales' medical staff to contact World Rugby regarding consistency of players being removed for head injury assessments.

"I have asked my medical staff to go back to World Rugby to give me some clarity on an incident like the Nick Tompkins one against Argentina," he said.

"It wasn't a penalty or a yellow card, but he still had to come off in that situation for a HIA.

"I need to know then in that situation why didn't [South Africa centre] Jesse Kriel have to come off for a HIA or [New Zealand forward] Ardie Savea [in the World Cup final]?"

Kriel was hit head-high by New Zealand captain Sam Cane, who was sent off, while Savea was on the receiving end of a challenge from Springboks skipper Siya Kolisi, who received a yellow card.

Line in the sand

For all the talk of the validity of this fixture, Gatland believes it marks the start of the next four-year cycle until the World Cup in Australia in 2027.

English, French and Japan-based club players are unavailable for the fixture, including Liam Williams, Gareth Anscombe, Nick Tompkins, Louis Rees-Zammit, Henry Thomas, Dillon Lewis, Tomas Francis, Will Rowlands, Christ Tshiunza - although the Exeter forward is injured - Dafydd Jenkins and Tommy Reffell.

Fly-half Dan Biggar has retired, while Taulupe Faletau, Gareth Thomas and Ryan Elias are injured.

"We've kind of drawn a line under the World Cup now, and we are talking about this next cycle and how we manage that, this group of players coming through," said Gatland.

"We haven't got a number of players available to us, but there is a good chance for the these young Welsh players that are here to go out there and see if they can give a performance.

"There is an opportunity without players outside of Wales for people to put down a marker in terms of being involved in the Six Nations.

"I had a chat with the players this week and said they want to be in a situation where it is harder to play your way into this team but easy to play your way out.

"The players get a chance to go out there on Saturday and give a good performance.

"I have demonstrated in the past I have been loyal to players who have gone out, put that jersey on and performed well.

"For those players who do, that's a good opportunity to be selected for the Six Nations next year."