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Wales Online
Wales Online
Sport
Katie Sands

Wales make four changes to face Australia with Women's World Cup quarter-finals on the line

Wales head coach Ioan Cunningham has made four personnel changes and two positional switches for the pool-stage finale against Australia on Saturday (2.15am UK kick-off) with a guaranteed spot in the quarter-finals at stake.

The losing side in the fixture could yet progress to the knockouts as one of the two best third-placed teams across the groups, but Wales will not want to leave it to chance.

Following on from the 56-12 defeat to reigning champions New Zealand last weekend, Cunningham has made a number of changes to his starting side.

Cerys Hale comes back in to start at tighthead prop, Alex Callender returns to the openside berth, and Carys Williams-Morris and Niamh Terry make their first appearances of the tournament at outside-centre and full-back respectively.

Gwen Crabb moves back to her more usual position of lock, and Bethan Lewis shifts to blindside flanker.

Hannah Jones leads the side, with squad captain Siwan Lillicrap set to make her 50th Wales appearance off the bench.

Wales boss Cunningham said of his changes: "It’s good to see Cerys back at tighthead, she’s an excellent scrummager, Gwen Crabb is back to her more usual position at second row with Natalia, Bethan Lewis was excellent last week and moves to the blindside with Alex Callender freshening up the backrow on the openside. Carys will add her size and physicality to the midfield and we are excited to see Niamh Terry go at full-back."

The Wallaroos were put to the sword 41-17 by the Black Ferns in their opener, before edging Scotland 14-12 last weekend despite the Scots putting the pressure on them, allowing Wales to take some confidence given their 18-15 win over their Celtic rivals.

"From what we've achieved in the first two weeks and some of the glimpses that we've shown, plus how Scotland took them to the wire, we can absolutely do something special and finish second in our group and get through to those quarter-finals, and then who knows what happens?" Lillicrap said. "We can take great confidence and we can truly believe we can go and win that game."

"It’s all on Saturday for us, it’s a massive game, we are really looking forward to it," Cunningham said. "The most important thing for us this week was to get the batteries fully charged mentally and physically for what's going to be a huge game for us on Saturday against a tough quality opposition.

"We have created a lot of opportunities during the tournament – against Scotland and also New Zealand. It’s important to get our nuts and bolts right – we built a really good set-piece platform last weekend – and then we need to convert our opportunities into tries.

"Australia are a quality team, they have some strong ball carriers and some lethal runners in the back line so they are dangerous with time on the ball. We know we have to start on the front foot because if we step off it at all it's going to be a tough afternoon. We must hold onto the ball and take our chances – and also match Australia in the physical battle."

Wales v Australia will be broadcast live on ITV and S4C online.

Wales: 15. Niamh Terry, 14. Jasmine Joyce, 13. Carys Williams-Morris, 12. Hannah Jones (capt), 11. Lisa Neumann, 10. Elinor Snowsill, 9. Ffion Lewis, 1. Cara Hope, 2. Kelsey Jones, 3. Cerys Hale, 4. Natalia John, 5. Gwen Crabb, 6. Bethan Lewis, 7. Alex Callender, 8. Sioned Harries.

Replacements: 16. Carys Phillips, 17. Caryl Thomas, 18. Sisilia Tuipulotu, 19. Georgia Evans, 20. Siwan Lillicrap, 21. Keira Bevan, 22. Robyn Wilkins, 23. Kerin Lake.

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