Wales duo released

Blues pair can line up against Wallabies

Last updated: 23rd November 2009   Subscribe to RSS Feed

Wales duo released

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Wales have released scrum-half Gareth Cooper and flanker Sam Warburton for Cardiff Blues' tour match against Australia on Tuesday night.

Cooper started his second Test of the autumn when Wales beat Argentina on Saturday, but Dwayne Peel is now in pole position to start against the Wallabies at the Millennium Stadium next weekend.

Warburton, meanwhile, was unlikely to have featured in the match-day 22 when Wales look for their third successive autumn victory.

Wales backs coach Rob Howley said: "This is an opportunity for both players to play in what will be an historic game for the Cardiff Blues.

"In our squad, we feel we have the strength in depth in the back-row and scrum-half to facilitate this request from the Blues to have access to their players.

"Both Gareth and Sam could well have figured in our own plans on Saturday, and are not entirely ruled out should we need to make any changes towards the end of the training week, but obviously they will not be named for Wales when we make our team announcement tomorrow.

"We will incur some disruption to our own preparations, but this decision is about putting the players first as well as backing Welsh regional rugby.

"This way round, we will have two Welsh scrum-halves, and a young man like Sam, all with the chance to start against Australia in a week - a significant development opportunity which would otherwise not have been the case."

Debut

Australia Under-20 and Brumbies flyhalf Matt Toomua will make his senior debut for the Wallabies.

The selection of Toomua, 19, is one of three personnel changes to the starting line-up from the Australian side which won its opening midweek match of the tour at Gloucester.

The others see Pekahou Cowan included to start at loosehead prop, in the place of Salesi Ma'afu, after coming off the bench as a hooker against Gloucester.

Ma'afu is relegated to the bench, after featuring on the tighthead side of the scrum at Gloucester, with Sekope Kepu switching from loosehead to tighthead to accommodate the inclusion of Cowan.

James O'Connor also starts at fullback with Kurtley Beale, who filled that role against Gloucester, switching to wing in the place of Drew Mitchell.

O'Connor is one of seven players in the starting XV who back up from last weekend's 9-8 defeat in Edinburgh, although centre Ryan Cross is the only player who starts at Cardiff who also featured in the run-on list for the Test match.

Kepu, Hooker Tatafu Polota-Nau, No 8 Richard Brown, halfback Luke Burgess and lock Dean Mumm are the other starters playing their second match in four days.

Mumm again leads the midweek side, after making a successful fist of his first time in charge when Australia over-powered Gloucester 36-5 at Kingsholm earlier in the month.

Australia: 15 James O'Connor (Western Force), 14 Lachie Turner (NSW Waratahs), 13 Ryan Cross (Western Force), 12 Tyrone Smith (Brumbies), 11 Kurtley Beale (NSW Waratahs), 10 Matt Toomua (Brumbies), 9 Luke Burgess (NSW Waratahs), 8 Richard Brown (Western Force), 7 Matt Hodgson (Western Force), 6 Mitchell Chapman (Brumbies), 5 Dean Mumm (NSW Waratahs, captain), 4 Dave Dennis (NSW Waratahs), 3 Sekope Kepu (NSW Waratahs), 2 Tatafu Polota-Nau (NSW Waratahs), 1 Pekahou Cowan (Western Force).
Subs: 16 Salesi Ma'afu (Brumbies), 17 Matt Dunning (Western Force), 18 Mark Chisholm (Brumbies), 19 George Smith (Brumbies), 20 Richard Kingi (Queensland Reds), 21 Quade Cooper (Queensland Reds), 22 Luke Morahan (Queensland Reds).