Scarlets wing Mark Jones returns in place of Blues flier Leigh Halfpenny, who misses out on a place in the 22 altogether, and Ian Gough comes straight into the starting line-up for his injured Ospreys team-mate Ian Evans – with another Osprey Alun-Wyn Jones switching sides of the scrum in the second row to accommodate Gough.
There is also one change on the bench with Scarlets scrum-half Martin Roberts coming in for Dwayne Peel who has been made unavailable by his club Sale Sharks.
“In Mark Jones we have a player who has been in form himself but was kept out, after being injured for our opening fixture, by Leigh (Halfpenny)’s impressive showing.” said Gatland.
“But he now has an opportunity to re-stake his claim and we are sure he will rise to that particular challenge.
“Leigh has represented himself well in his first three caps for his country and made a real impact on the international scene, but he is a young man and after three huge games in succession we have decided to look after him and have him to sit this one out.
“Ian Gough brings a wealth of experience to the second row and although Luke Charteris can be pleased with his performance when he came on against the All Blacks last week we have prefered him as an option on the bench who can come on and make an impact.
“For the rest of the squad we were pleased with the performance last week and so have kept faith, although we are now very much looking for a result to go with that performance.”
The clash with the Wallabies represents the final opportunity for Gatland’s Wales to beat Southern Hemisphere opposition – a stated aim at the start of the autumn campaign – before they open the defence of their 6 Nations title against Scotland on Sunday 8th February.
The game now also carries the extra ‘carrot’ of a further potential move up the IRB world rankings, after it was announced this morning that Wales have risen to 6th.
Gatland has a long term aim for this Wales team to reach the top four during his reign at the helm and the fact he is within touching distance already – albeit with a 15 point win over the Wallabies necessary as well as other results to go his way – will be pleasing to Wales’ adopted Kiwi.
“We want to play the best teams regularly in order to improve ourselves and raise our own standards, we want to achieve consistency and any rise up the World rankings would certainly be a reflection that we may be going in the right direction,” added Gatland.
“But the most important thing for everyone is to get a result if we can. That is an incredibly tough prospect, but on the other side of the coin there is no doubting that we have an opportunity here against the Wallabies.
“The statistics say they are a better team than us and they will rightly carry the favourites tag, but we have the opportunity on Saturday to achieve something special out of this Autumn campaign and it is a chance we do not want to miss.”
WALES: Lee Byrne; Mark Jones, Tom Shanklin, Jamie Roberts, Shane Williams, Stephen Jones, Gareth Cooper; Gethin Jenkins, Matthew Rees, Adam Jones, Ian Gough, Alun-Wyn Jones, Ryan Jones (capt), Martyn Williams, Andy Powell
REPLACEMENTS: Richard Hibbard, John Yapp, Luke Charteris, Dafydd Jones, Martin Roberts, James Hook, Andrew Bishop
WALES
15 Lee BYRNE (OSPREYS – Cap No 1,041)
DoB: 01.06.80. 6’3″ / 1.91m. 15st 9lbs / 99kgs
International record: 21 caps (W 8, L 12, D 1; 25 pts – 5T)
14 Mark JONES (SCARLETS – Cap No 984)
DoB: 07.11.79. 6’2” / 1.88m. 15st 0lbs / 95kgs
International record: 42 caps (W 18, L 22, D 2; 60 pts – 12T)
13 Tom SHANKLIN (CARDIFF BLUES – Cap No 993)
DoB: 24.11.79. 6’2” / 1.88m. 15st 9lbs / 99kgs
International record: 57 caps (W 26, L 30, D 1; 90 pts – 18T)
12 Jamie ROBERTS (CARDIFF BLUES – Cap No 1,057)
DoB: 08.11.86. 6’4” / 1.93m. 16st 10lbs / 107kgs
International record: 6 caps (W 2, L 4; 5 pts – 1T)
11 Shane WILLIAMS (OSPREYS – Cap No 976)
DoB: 26.02.77. 5’7” / 1.71m. 12st 13lbs / 82kgs
International record: 60 caps (W 29, L 29, D 2; 215 pts – 43T)
10 Stephen JONES (SCARLETS – Cap No 966)
DoB: 08.12.77. 6’1” / 1.86m. 14st 12lbs / 94kgs
International record: 74 caps (W32, L40, D2; 638 pts – 6T,115C,123PG,3DG)
9 Gareth COOPER (GLOUCESTER RUGBY – Cap No 985)
DoB: 07.05.79. 5’7” / 1.71m. 13st 6lbs / 85kgs
International record: 39 caps (W 17, L 22; 40 pts – 8T)
1 Gethin JENKINS (CARDIFF BLUES – Cap No 1,006)
DoB: 17.11.80. 6’2” / 1.88m. 18st 13lbs / 120kgs
International record: 62 caps (W 25, L 35, D 2; 15 pts – 3T)
2 Matthew REES (SCARLETS – Cap No 1,033)
DoB: 09.12.80. 6’0” / 1.83m. 17st 1lbs / 108kgs
International record: 24 caps (W 10, L 13, D 1; 10 pts – 2T)
3 Adam JONES (OSPREYS – Cap No 1,018)
DoB: 08.03.81. 6’0” / 1.83m. 19st 10lb / 125kgs
International record: 51 caps (W 26, L 23, D 2; 5 pts – 1T)
4 Ian GOUGH (OSPREYS – Cap No 964)
DoB: 10.11.76. 6′ 6″ / 1.98m. 18st 9lbs / 118kgs
International record: 54 caps (W 24, L 27, D 3; 5 pts – 1T)
5 Alun-Wyn JONES (OSPREYS – Cap No 1,046)
DoB: 19.09.85. 6’5” / 1.96m. 19st 1lbs / 121kgs
International record: 25 caps (W 9, L 16; 15 pts – 3T)
6 Ryan JONES (OSPREYS, CAPTAIN – Cap No 1,029)
DoB: 13.03.81. 6’5” / 1.96m. 18st 0lbs / 114kgs
International record: 26 caps (W 14, L 11, D 1; 5 pts – 1T)
7 Martyn WILLIAMS (CARDIFF BLUES – Cap No 944)
DoB: 01.09.75. 6’0″ / 1.83m. 15st 11lbs / 100kgs
International record: 83 caps (W 38, L 42, D 3; 73 pts – 14T, 1DG)
8 Andy POWELL (CARDIFF BLUES – Cap No 1,061)
DoB: 23.08.81. 6’4” / 1.94m. 17st 6lbs / 111kgs
International record: 3 caps (W 1, L 2)
REPLACEMENTS
16 Richard HIBBARD (OSPREYS – Cap No 1,048)
DoB: 13.12.83. 6’0” / 1.83m. 17st 7lbs / 111kgs
International record: 7 caps (W 1, L 6)
17 John YAPP (CARDIFF BLUES – Cap No 1,031)
DoB: 09.04.83. 6’2” / 1.88m. 18st 8lbs / 118kgs
nternational record: 11 caps (W 8, L 3)
18 Luke CHARTERIS (NEWPORT GWENT DRAGONS – Cap No 1,030)
DoB: 09.03.83. 6’9” / 2.06m. 19st 9lbs / 125kgs
International record: 9 caps (W 5, L 4)
19 Dafydd JONES (SCARLETS – Cap No 1,008)
DoB: 24.06.79. 6’3” / 1.90m. 17st 5lbs / 110kgs
International record: 33 caps (W 13; L 20; 10 pts – 2T)
20 Martin ROBERTS (SCARLETS – Cap No 1,062)
DoB: 06.06.86. 5’9” / 1.76m. 12st 1lb / 77kgs
International record: 1 cap (W 1)
21 James HOOK (OSPREYS – Cap No 1,047)
DoB: 27.06.85. 6’0” / 1.83m. 14st 12lbs / 94kgs
International record: 30 caps (W 12, L 17, D 1; 196 pts – 6T,32C,32PG,2DG)
22 Andrew BISHOP (OSPREYS – Cap No 1,059)
DoB: 07.08.85. 6’0” / 1.83m. 15st 0lbs / 95kgs
International record: 2 caps (W 1, L 1)
