Today's other stories in brief
Peel recalled at scrumhalf as Gatland keeps faith
WALES COACH Warren Gatland has made one change from the team that beat Argentina for Saturday’s autumn finale against Australia in Cardiff.
It is in the back division, where Sale Sharks scrumhalf Dwayne Peel takes over from Gareth Cooper and wins his 72nd cap.
Peel gains a second start of the four-Test November series, preferred to Cooper, who has been released from Wales squad training to play for Cardiff Blues in last night’s tour match appointment with Australia.
Scarlets scrumhalf Martin Roberts will provide bench cover for Peel, but Blues centre Tom Shanklin fails to gain a place in the 22.
WALES (v Argentina, Cardiff, Sat, 5.15): J Hook; L Halfpenny, J Roberts, J Davies, S Williams; S Jones, D Peel; G Jenkins, M Rees, P James, A W Jones, L Charteris, A Powell, M Williams, R Jones (capt). Replacements: H Bennett, D Jones, J Thomas, D Lydiate, M Roberts, A Bishop, T James.
France make seven changes
FRANCE coach Marc Lievremont has made seven changes to the team that defeated world champions South Africa for Saturday’s game against New Zealand.
Lievremont has brought in centres Yannick Jauzion and David Marty, Maxime Medard on the wing, as well as Fulgence Ouedraogo and Julien Bonnaire in the backrow.
Lock Sebastien Chabal and prop Sylvain Marconnet also come into the team.
Cedric Heymans, Yann David, Lionel Nallet and Nicolas Mas drop to the bench.
All Blacks’ head coach Graham Henry will announce his team today.
FRANCE (v New Zealand): Damien Traille; Vincent Clerc, David Marty, Yannick Jauzion, Maxime Medard; Francois Trinh-Duc, Julien Dupuy; Fabien Barcella, William Servat, Sylvain Marconnet, Sebastien Chabal, Romain Millo-Chluski, Thierry Dusautoir (capt), Fulgence Ouedraogo, Julien Bonnaire. Replacements: Dimitri Szarzewski, Nicolas Mas, Lionel Nallet, Julien Puricelli, Morgan Parra, Yann David, Cedric Heymans.
British and Irish Cup continues
THE IRISH provincial A teams all got off to victories starts in the British and Irish Cup last weekend. Round two takes place this Friday with Leinster hosting the Cornish Pirates in Donnybrook, Munster in Nenagh against Bristol and Ulster travelling to Moseley, writes Gavin Cummiskey.
There are 13 Leinster academy players in the squad coached by Colin McEntee, while Girvan Dempsey has also been included along with the recent arrival from the Free State Cheetahs, hooker Richardt Strauss.
LEINSTER (forwards): Ronan McCormack, Richardt Strauss, Jason Harris-Wright, Jack McGrath, Stewart Maguire, Ciaran Ruddock, Trevor Hogan, Mark Flanagan, Eoin Sherriff, Rhys Ruddock, Dominic Ryan, Paul Ryan, Stephen Keogh. (Backs): Paul O’Donohoe, Simon Keogh, Ian McKinley, Eoin O’Malley, Shaun Berne, Brendan Macken, Michael Keating, Niall Morris, David Kearney, Girvan Dempsey, Ian Madigan
ULSTER (forwards): Nigel Brady, Paddy McAllister, Stephen Mulholland, Ed O’Donoghue, Adam Macklin, Ryan Fisher, Neil McComb, Willie Faloon, Tamaiti Horua, Declan Fitzpatrick, David Pollock, Alistair Birch, Thomas Anderson. (Backs): Jamie Smith, Chris Cochrane, Tommy Seymour, Niall O’Connor, Ian Whitten, Paul Marshall, Ian Porter, Luke Marshall, Jonny Shiels, Ricky Andrew, Clinton Schifcofske.
MacDonald to face Argentina
ALAN MacDonald was yesterday handed his Scotland debut in Saturday’s final autumn international against Argentina as Andy Robinson made three changes from the historic win over Australia. Ben Cairns comes in for Graeme Morrison at centre and Glasgow wing Thom Evans replaces Simon Danielli.
SCOTLAND (v Argentina): R Lamont; S Lamont, A Grove, B Cairns, T Evans; P Godman, C Cusiter (capt); A Jacobsen, R Ford, M Low, N Hines, A Kellock, A Strokosch, A MacDonald, J Beattie.
First seats installed at new stadium
THE AVIVA Stadium remains on course to open next summer as the first of 50,000 seats were installed yesterday. The latest development at the old Lansdowne Road stadium followed a series of milestones in the last few weeks after the roof steel was completed and work on the pitch began.
The grass surface is due to be sewn into the ground with officials aiming to put in seeds either in December or March.
Martin Murphy, stadium director, confirmed the Aviva Stadium is on schedule for handover in April but matches will not be played for several months.
