Wayne Pivac offers Jonathan Davies reassurance
Wales head coach Wayne Pivac, dealing with a plethora of unavailabilities, chose to leave veteran and 99-cap centre Jonathan Davies out of the entire matchday squad to face Australia on Saturday, an eyebrow-raising selection.
Two of the named starters – wing Josh Adams and prop Tomas Francis – face late fitness tests which, if they failed, would mean Wales had 17 unavailable players for the match.
Counterpart Dave Rennie is dealing with multiple injury issues of his own, meaning predicting the outcome of Saturday’s game is tough at best.
Hungry
Yet Pivac has chosen to leave the vastly-experienced Davies out, to the surprise of many, but has assured Davies that there is a recall for the Six Nations there if he can meet the criteria.
“He (Davies) is hungry,” Pivac added. “He’s just as hungry as if he had one or two caps.
“He desperately wants to play for his country. He knows he has got more to give. He will go back to club rugby and look to force his way back into the (Wales) side.
“I had a good chat with Jonathan. Obviously, he would love to be out there playing.
“We wanted to have a look at Willis (Halaholo) earlier in the autumn but we weren’t able to because of the Covid situation.
“He came off the bench last week and did a lot. We want to see him in his first start to see how he goes.
“We think he has earned the right to start, and Nick played well last week, so we will go with that combination.
“There is a big difference between dropping and rotating. Jonathan hasn’t been dropped, but we want to have a look at Willis and also Josh (Adams) in midfield.
“So there is no place for Jonathan because of what we wanted to look at in midfield. Hopefully that explains that.”
But Pivac believes victory over Australia on Saturday would mean injury-hit Wales could reflect on a “successful” Autumn Nations Series campaign.
Assessing the autumn campaign as a whole – Wales suffered contrasting defeats against New Zealand (54-16) and South Africa (23-18) before beating Fiji – Pivac said: “We have lost senior guys that would hurt any side.
“But it is great opportunities for guys, and some have come in and done very, very well. That has been a massive positive.
“To come up against the world champions (South Africa) in conditions that suited them, that was a huge effort from our players, particularly the forward pack, who are probably the most damaged in terms of loss of experience.
“And then to turn around and play that game against Fiji, which was always a very difficult and physical opponent.
“A win is what we are after, and I think a win would make it successful.”
Josh Adams fit to start for Wales against Australia
Wales have been boosted by the return to fitness of Josh Adams for their Autumn Nations Series clash with Australia at the Principality Stadium on Saturday.
Adams is named in the starting line-up for their final international of the year after pulling out with a calf injury ahead of kick-off last week against Fiji.
He is joined in the back three by try-scoring speedster Louis Rees-Zammit and player of the match against Fiji, full-back Liam Williams, in an exciting trio.