Liam Botham has been left out of Wales' trial on January 29 to give him time to consider his international allegiance.

The Cardiff wing, son of England cricket legend Ian, is being courted by both Wales and England in the run-up to the inaugural Six Nations Championship starting on February 5.

Botham has said he will consider where his loyalties lie over the next week before making a decision on his future.

While there is no place yet for Botham in the Welsh trial, there may not be places for World Cup stars, Craig Quinnell and Dafydd James in coach Graham Henry's first Six Nations line-up against France at the Millennium Stadium in three weekends' time.

Both players were named in `team two' rather than `team one' for the trial game at Swansea on Saturday week.

The out-of-form Scott Gibbs was also originally named in 'team two' but he has now been ruled out of the opening fixture with a hamstring injury.

This could now pave the way for Neath wing Shane Williams, Pontypridd's Ian Gough and Newport's Jason Jones-Hughes to make Henry's starting line-up when he announces it immediately after the trial.

Henry today gave his reasons for holding a trial which also includes a development match kicking off two hours before the main game.

"We would prefer to get something concrete in place which we can carry on year by year. There are basically three objectives for the trial," said Henry.

"Firstly we want to ensure that any position we are not certain of at the moment we will be certain of after the trial because we name the team that evening.

"Secondly it gives us time with the team before the first international, which is very important. Since the World Cup we have had no time at all together and to go into a match like this would be ludicrous.

"Thirdly it's to look at some of the young players who will be available to play for Wales in the future.

"The trial will help us to clarify players for the development tour to South Africa this summer."

Henry has enlisted the help of 15 former internationals, including Gareth Edwards and JPR Williams, to assess players involved in the trial.

Welsh trial teams (names in brackets are second-half replacements)

Team 1:
S Howarth, Newport (A Durston, Bridgend); G Thomas, Cardiff (B Breeze, Newport), J Jones-Hughes, Newport, M Taylor, Swansea (L Davies, Cardiff), Shane Williams, Neath; N Jenkins, Cardiff (S Jones, Llanelli), R Howley, Cardiff (G Cooper, Bath); P Rogers, Newport, G Jenkins, Swansea (A Lewis, Cardiff), D Jones, Cardiff (J Davies, Llanelli), I Gough, Pontypridd (S Moore, Cardiff), C Wyatt, Llanelli (Steve Williams, Cardiff), C Charvis, Swansea (G Lewis, Pontypridd), I Boobyer, Llanelli (M Williams, Pontypridd), S Quinnell, Llanelli (H Jenkins, Llanelli).

Team 2:
M Cardey, Llanelli; N Walne, Cardiff, M Watkins, Newport, S Gibbs, Swansea (J Prichard, Newport), D James, Llanelli; A Thomas, Swansea (L Jarvis, Pontypridd), D Llewellyn, Newport (R Smith, Ebbw Vale); P Booth, Llanelli (D Morris, Swansea), C Wells, Swansea (R McBryde, Llanelli), S John, Cardiff, C Quinnell, Cardiff (T Maullin, Swansea), A Moore, Swansea (M Voyle, Cardiff), N Budgett, Ebbw Vale, K Jones, Gloucester (G Thomas, Bath), S van Rensburg, Neath.