GERWYN Price and Jonny Clayton will join forces again to defend Wales’ World Cup of Darts title in Germany this week.

The annual 32-nation event takes place in Jena and features singles and doubles matches for two-player teams.

World champion Price, from Markham, and Premier League winner Clayton, from Carmarthenshire, lifted the trophy in Austria last year.

They beat Russia, Scotland, Australia and Germany on their way to the final, when they cruised to a 3-0 win over England.

They have been seeded second for the defence of their title and will go up against Finland's Marko Kantele and Veijo Viinikka in Thursday's opening first round games.

Third seeds Netherlands, represented this year by Michael van Gerwen and debutant Dirk van Duijvenbode, begin their bid to win a fifth World Cup title against Denmark's Andreas Toft Jørgensen and Niels Heinsoe.

Scotland will see Peter Wright and John Henderson team up this year, and the 2019 champions will play Chinese debutants Jianfeng Lu and Wenqing Liu.

Former finalists Australia drew Italy, while Thursday's opening night will also see Singapore - including veteran star Paul Lim - meet Gibraltar, the Czech Republic play Poland, Hungary's tie with Lithuania and Sweden's clash with America, for whom Chuck Puleo partners Danny Lauby in the absence of Danny Baggish.

The first round will conclude on Friday, with top seeds England being represented by the new pairing of James Wade and Dave Chisnall as they take on Brazi's Diogo Portela and Artur Valle.

UK Open champion Wade will be making his first appearance since the inaugural World Cup in 2010, while Chisnall previously competed in 2017 and 2018.

Fourth seeds Belgium, for whom Dimitri Van den Bergh partners Kim Huybrechts, drew Croatia's Boris Brcmar and Pero Ljubic.

Ireland, runners-up in 2019, will take on Portugal as Grand Slam of Darts champion Jose de Sousa makes his second World Cup appearance, while Northern Ireland take on Hong Kong.

Host nation Germany, for whom Gabriel Clemens and Max Hopp reached the 2020 semi-finals, drew Canada in a tasty tie as Jeff Smith and Matt Campbell renew a partnership which reached the quarter-finals last year.

Austria will play the Philippines, South Africa will face the new Spanish pairing of Jesus Noguera and Jose Justicia and Russia's Boris Koltsov and Evgenii Izotov take on Japan's Matsuda Jun and Yoshihisa Baba.

New Zealand, quarter-finalists two years ago, will not be represented at the World Cup for the first time due to the ongoing difficulties with international travel.

Following the first round on Thursday and Friday, the second round will be split across two sessions on Saturday.

Sunday's afternoon session will feature the quarter-finals, ahead of the semi-finals and final in the evening.