Wales Students v Australia
Students

Wales Students hope to be the first side to beat the Australians on their 2004 Academic Ashes tour as the two teams meet in Treorchy this Sunday (kick-off 2pm).

This is after the tourists got off to the perfect start, beating England 18-12 on Wednesday night in London.

Because of this, coach Wayne Williams knows that it will be a difficult task to stop the Australians getting another win.

"It will be a difficult day at the office as a match against the Australians is tough at any level." Williams comments, "But we've got a great squad containing players who have international experience at all levels of the game and it was difficult to select a final 17. The lads are fit and raring to go and despite Wednesday night's result, we all believe we're capable of winning - we're ready for them."

Wales have selected two professionals in their starting line-up, Aled James, who has played in Super League with Widnes Vikings and Pete Moore, who will go on to face the Australians again on December 15th when he joins the Great Britain squad. Both now with Sheffield Eagles, they started their playing careers at Cardiff Demons in the Rugby League Conference.

Wales Students are so-far unbeaten in 2004 with wins over Ireland, Scotland and England, while seven members of the squad also enjoyed 100% success with the Wales Conference side who also did the triple-crown over their home nations counterparts.

This match is the second in a month-long tour for the Student Kangaroos as they attempt to retain the Academic Ashes that they won back from Great Britain in Australia in 2003. Treorchy's Lower Regent Street ground has been chosen to host this match for the second time, after successfully staging on the last Academic Ashes tour in 2001.

The Australians will go on to play against Ireland and Scotland before facing the full Great Britain side on December 15th in Dewsbury and December 19th in Warrington.

Sunday December 5th

Academic Ashes Tour 2004

Wales Students v Australia Students (Treorchy RUFC, 2pm)

WALES

1 Matt Jackson (UWIC) 2 Dan Nelmes (Exeter University / Newport Titans) 3 Olli Green (UWIC) 4 Phil Carleton (UWIC / Aberavon Fighting Irish) 5 Sean O'Brien (Coleg Glan Hafron / Aberavon Fighting Irish) 6 Aled James (UWIC / Sheffield Eagles) 7 Pete Moore (Leeds Met / Sheffield Eagles) 8 Gareth Morgan Gareth Morgan (UWIC / Cardiff Demons) 9 Joel Keen (UWIC) 10 Dewi Scourfield (Cardiff University) 11 Mark Dando (UWIC / Cardiff Demons) 12 Matt Drew ?(UCE / Aberavon Fighting Irish) 13 Neil Davies (UWIC / Aberavon Fighting Irish, Capt)

14 Dennis Pugh (Glamorgan University) 15 Gavin Curry (UWIC) 16 Geraint Davies (Swansea University / Aberavon Fighting Irish) 17 Dan ap Dafydd (Brunel University / Aberavon Fighting Irish )