Australia drop Suaalii to bench for Wales Test

Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii played rugby union for Australia schoolboys before starting his professional career in rugby league

Autumn Nations Series: Wales v Australia

Venue: Principality Stadium, Cardiff Date: Sunday, 17 November Kick off: 16:10 GMT

Coverage: Live on S4C, BBC Radio Wales, Radio Cymru, live text and commentary on the BBC Sport website and app

Australia have dropped new star centre Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii to the replacements' bench for the Autumn Nations Series match against Wales in Cardiff on Sunday.

Suaalii is replaced by Samu Kerevi in one of six personnel changes made by head coach Joe Schmidt to the side that edged a thriller 42-37 against England at the Allianz Stadium in Twickenham.

Captain Harry Wilson is missing because of concussion with flanker Seru Uru coming in and Rob Valetini moving to number eight.

Prop Allan Alaalatoa replaces Taniela Tupou and assumes the captaincy.

France-based lock Will Skelton replaces Jeremy Williams for his first Test of 2024, wing Max Jorgenson, who scored the winning try as a replacement last weekend, comes in for the injured Dylan Pietsch and scrum-half Nic White replaces Jake Gordon.

Valetini and Kerevi will both win their 50th caps.

Suaalii, 21, produced a spectacular player-of-the-match performance in his first game of professional rugby union against England.

His highlights included his aerial ability at restarts and his offloading game, typified by a superb one-handed pass that created Australia's opening try for full-back Tom Wright.

His display came less than a month after he switched codes from rugby league as he served immediate notice of his game-breaking ability.

Kerevi last played Test rugby during the 2023 World Cup before moving to play club rugby in Japan.

Australia arrive in Cardiff having won nine times from their last 11 visits to the Welsh capital, while the Wallabies also defeated Wales 2-0 in the 2024 summer series.

Wales are hoping to avoid a record 11th successive Test defeat after losing 24-19 to Fiji last weekend.

Australia team to play Wales

Wright; Kellaway, Ikitau, Kerevi, Jorgensen; Lolesio, White; Bell, Faessler, Alaalatoa, Frost, Skelton, Uru, McReight, Valetini.

Replacements: Paenga-Amosa, Slipper, Nonggorr, Salakaia-Loto, Gleeson, McDermott, Donaldson, Suaalii