A team of players hopeful of making it onto the flight to South Africa – for Wales’ summer tour which kicks-off tonight with a midweek fixture against Eastern Province Kings in Port Elizabeth – took on the suggested incumbents in the national squad on Friday 30th May.
Wales head coach Warren Gatland announced his 32-man tour party immediately after the trial, with players impressing from both the Possibles team, coached by Robin McBryde, and the Probables team, coached by Rob Howley, on the night.
A capacity crowd of 20,000-plus fans attended the match, which was also shown live on BBC Wales, with tickets available at the reduced cost of just £5 and £1 concession.
The Probables side beat the Possibles side 57-5 on the night, but there are seven players from the Possibles starting line-up in Swansea who impressed enough to keep their places for this evenings tour kick-off (6pm UK-time): centre pairing Cory Allen and Steven Shingler, fly-half James Hook, prop Rhodri Jones, second rows Jake Ball and Ian Evans and No8 Dan Baker. Possibles replacement on the night Matthew Morgan also starts, at full-back.
“The Welsh Rugby Charitable Trust works to support players, and their families, who have been affected by serious injury,” said WRU President Dennis Gethin, who is also chairman of the WRCT.
“This is a significant sum of money which will go a long way to helping with the important work done by the trust and we would like to extend our gratitude to everyone who attended the game, who bought tickets, programmes or supported the bucket collection.
“Everyone who was there has contributed in some way to this substantial donation which will make a real difference to the lives of those people supported by the charity and we would like to thank not just to the WRU staff and players and sponsors, but also all the fans who showed their support for their national game on the night.”
Wales, who have named Alun Wyn Jones as tour captain, play their first Test against the Springboks in Durban on Saturday June 14 and the second a week later in Nelspruit on Saturday June 21.
