DAN Lydiate has missed out on a squad place for this weekend's Rugby World Cup clash between Wales and Australia.

The Abbey-cwm-hir raised Dragons flanker is one of a raft of players to have been selected to play Portugal last week to miss out as coach Warren Gatland reverts to the squad which beat Fiji in the opener.

Victory for Wales in Lyon on Sunday would elminate Australia and likely doom coach Eddie Jones to the sack.

Gareth Davies, Dan Biggar, Nick Tompkins, George North and Liam Williams return to the backline with Josh Adams also returning.

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In the pack, Gareth Thomas, Ryan Elias, Tomas Francis, Adam Beard, Will Rowlands and Aaron Wainwright all feature.

Gatland said: "We’re happy with our position going into this game. We have two wins and ten points. There’s a confidence among this group and we’ve had a good edge to training this week. Everyone wants to be involved and there were some disappointed players this week, which is exactly what we want with competition strong across the squad.

“Every game in the World Cup is tough, the stakes are high, and this will be no different. Australia have talented players and we know they will want to come out and put in a performance this weekend.

"Our accuracy was good against Fiji, but it was not at the level we would like against Portugal. We are looking to get better every week. Against Australia we know we have to take our chances and put them under as much pressure as possible.

“If we play the way we know we can and maintain that for 80 minutes, then we know we will be a very hard team to beat.”