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Shingler ready to step up

Shingler ready to step up

Wales forward Aaron Shingler hopes his impressive showing as a replacement against New Zealand last weekend will be enough to earn him a starting spot against Australia on Saturday.

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With Warren Gatland facing selection issues after Wales suffered further injuries against the All Blacks, Wales have delayed naming their side to take on the Wallabies until later this week.

Bradley Davies and Aaron Jarvis were both forced off in the opening minutes against New Zealand while they were later joined on the side lines by Jamie Roberts and Ryan Jones.

The incidents left Wales short of line out jumpers but Shingler responded impressively after being introduced for Davies early on.

The Scarlets man was a constant provider of set piece ball, impressing against a physical New Zealand pack. And he believes he is now ready to step up into Gatland’s starting XV.

“Every selection has been tough for me to get in but hopefully I’ll get an opportunity to play well again,” he said.

“I definitely want to start. It’s a great feeling to play for Wales and I love every minute of it. We’ll just have to wait and see.”

With Davies out for this weekend following an off the ball blow from New Zealand’s Andrew Hore, Cardiff Blues lock Lou Reed has joined the squad full time and Shingler knows how important a win is on Saturday.

“A win is everything really. We’ve got to put everything on the line as we have done every week but it’s even more important we don’t come away with four losses. It’s a massive, massive week ahead,” he added.

“We’ve trained well, preparation has been good but it just hasn’t gone as we’d have liked on the field, that’s the disappointing thing.

“We had a good second half (against New Zealand) and we know if we play with tempo we can compete with the best.

“We’ve got to be very accurate, very aggressive and really look to bully them.”

Tickets are still available for the game with Australia priced at £60 from the WRU Ticket Store (St David’s Dewi Sant), via Ticketmaster (08442 777888 and www.ticketmaster.com) and Ticketline (02920 230130 and www.ticketlineuk.com).

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