Wales forced into late change

Wales lock Ian Evans has been ruled out of the clash with Australia at the Millennium Stadium on Saturday, after failing a fitness test on a knee problem Friday afternoon.


Cardiff Blues second row Lou Reed, called up to the training squad this week, comes straight into the starting line-up as a direct replacement for Evans with the rest of the Wales matchday 23 remaining as published.


Evans has been excluded in order to give him optimum opportunity to manage his injury.


Whilst he completed training this week he has not been totally free of pain and, with this in mind and after extended discussions between the WRU and his Regional medical team, it has been decided to withdraw him from the game in order to seek further investigation and opinion.


A time scale for his absence has not been discussed at this present time.


Wales - revised: 15 Leigh Halfpenny, 14 Alex Cuthbert, 13 Jonathan Davies, 12 Jamie Roberts, 11 Liam Williams, 10 Rhys Priestland, 9 Mike Phillips, 8 Toby Faletau, 7 Sam Warburton (captain), 6 Aaron Shingler, 5 Luke Charteris, 4 Lou Reed, 3 Scott Andrews, 2 Matthew Rees, 1 Gethin Jenkins.

Replacement: 16 Ken Owens, 17 Ryan Bevington, 18 Samson Lee, 19 Ryan Jones, 20 Justin Tipuric, 21 Tavis Knoyle, 22 Dan Biggar, 23 Scott Williams


Date: Saturday, December 1

Venue: Millennium Stadium, Cardiff

Kick-off: 14.30 (14.30 GMT, 01.30, Sunday, December 2 AEDST)

Referee: Wayne Barnes (England)

Assistant referees: Romain Poite, Greg Garner (England)

TMO: Marshall Kilgore (Ireland)