Leigh Halfpenny admits he is desperate to make up for lost time spent not wearing a Wales shirt.
The Toulon full-back will end a 14-month absence from the Test match arena against Australia on Saturday – and immediately resume the high-pressure role of principal goal-kicker.
Halfpenny lines up against the Wallabies on Cardiff for his first Wales appearance since he suffered knee ligament damage during a World Cup warm-up game in September last year.
“I was absolutely delighted to hear my name read out in the starting XV to face Australia,” said the 27-year-old.
“I’m just over the moon to be back playing for Wales after a long spell away, I missed it a heck of a lot. Now I can’t wait for Saturday. I missed that feeling of pulling the red jersey on and running out at the Principality Stadium with your team-mates.
“Every time you hear Land of my Fathers, sing the national anthem in a pack alongside your team-mates, there’s nothing like it. When you are injured, you want to use that time to improve on all aspects of your game. Especially when you are out for such a lengthy period, you get a lot of time to work on your skills.”
Halfpenny, who has been handed back kicking duties, plays alongside George North and Alex Cuthbert in the back-three after Liam Williams lost his race to recover from an ankle injury.
Wales’s record cap holder Gethin Jenkins captains the side in the absence of Sam Warburton, who should be fit for the Argentina clash a week later.
Alun Wyn Jones was withdrawn from the squad following the death of his father, so Luke Charteris and Bradley Davies pack down in the second-row.
Gloucester back-rower Ross Moriarty moves to the unfamiliar position of No 8 alongside Justin Tipuric and Dan Lydiate, while the uncapped duo of Sam Davies and Cory Hill could make their debuts from the bench.
Wales have been within one score of the Wallabies in seven of their last nine defeats. And Halfpenny, who goes up against star-man Israel Folau, is determined to close the gap to seal a dream return to the Test match arena.
He added: “Folau is a quality player, very dangerous with ball in hand, very good in the air. But they’ve got quality across the park, we need to do everything right, be at our best in defence, execute our roles.
“So many times against Australia we’ve lost the game in the last minute, we need to learn from those. We have to execute our roles in both attack and defence.”
Halfpenny, the second-highest points scorer in Wales international rugby history behind Neil Jenkins ,will resume a goal-kicking role that passed to fly-half Dan Biggar in his prolonged absence.
“Leigh Halfpenny starts as goalkicker,” Wales’ interim head coach Rob Howley said.
“We have spoken to Dan. He has done fantastically well, with the way he kicked in the World Cup, the Six Nations and in New Zealand (in June). We are lucky enough to have two world-class goalkickers.
“The conversations we have had with both is we feel Leigh doesn’t deserve to have the goalkicking taken away from him.”
Given that six of Wales’ last 11 Tests against the Wallabies have been decided by five points or less – all in Australia’s favour – Halfpenny could find himself quickly back in the spotlight.
Jenkins, who will be 36 later this month, leads Wales for the seventh time in his career, while the starting line-up has a combined total of 802 caps.
Howley added: “Unfortunately, Liam hasn’t made it. We are hopeful that he will train early next week and be available next week, which is really good news.
“But we have three British and Irish Lions in the back three, three potent try scorers, and we are delighted to have them back in.”
Wales have not beaten Australia for eight years – Jenkins and centre Jamie Roberts are the only survivors this weekend from that starting XV – and Howley said: “We’ve come up close a couple of times, and obviously lost in the last play of the game a few times.
“They are a quality team. We know we’ve got to be on the top of our game to get a result against them, and Saturday will be no different.
“They are coming here on the back of what has been some improved performances in the Rugby Championship, and they will be looking at their past history against us to try and get that victory.
“One of the things we learnt from the summer (in New Zealand) and the way the game is going in general, everyone needs to be comfortable on the ball.
“We have been doing a lot more skills in the week, and working on that under pressure.
“We need to have the confidence and the ability to do that work on the field on a Saturday, and not perhaps go into our shells.”
Australia will unleash the fearsome back-row duo of David Pocock and Michael Hooper at the Principality Stadium. They play behind an experienced front-row, while the second-row pairing of Rory Arnold and Adam Coleman have just 10 international starts between them.
