Nottage is a former British international basketball player

Gloucester managing director Ken Nottage has admitted his fears over the financial risk involved with organising Wednesday's game against Australia.

"It's been quite a hairy time, but I think we've got there," Nottage admitted to BBC Radio Gloucestershire.

"It would have been a quick trip to the job centre for me having convinced my board to buy this event in if we didn't get a very good attendance."

Kingsholm will be close to capacity with over 15,000 tickets sold so far.

"It's an expensive event, the Australians don't simply say 'we think we'd like to go and play Gloucester at Kingsholm', making it work financially has been hard work."

The Wallabies have played twice before at Kingsholm, on their first tour of England in 1908 against a Gloucestershire side and a South West team in 1981, so this is the first time Gloucester have faced Australia.

In his first game at Kingsholm since 2007, Jake Boer captains Gloucester who field a team with a mix of youth and experience with the likes of former All Black Carlos Spencer and Pierre Capdevielle.

Centre Ryan Cross is the only player in the Australian side who started the test against New Zealand in Tokyo at the weekend.

Teams

Gloucester: Freddie Burns; Charlie Sharples, Henry Trinder, Tim Molenaar, Tom Voyce; Carlos Spencer, Dave Lewis; Paul Doran-Jones, Darren Dawiduik, Pierre Capdevielle; Will James, Adam Eustace; Jake Boer (captain), Akapusi Qera, Dan Williams. Replacements: Ben Phillips, Rupert Harden, Dave Attwood, Apo Satala, Jordi Pasqualin, Jonny May, James Simpson-Daniel.

Australia: Kurtley Beale; Lachie Turner, Ryan Cross, Tyrone Smith, Drew Mitchell; Quade Cooper, Luke Burgess; Sekope Kepu, Tatafu Polota Nau, Salesi Ma'afu; Dave Dennis, Dean Mumm (captain); Mitchell Chapman, Matt Hodgson, Richard Brown. Replacements: Pek Cowan, Matt Dunning, Mark Chisholm, Wycliff Palu, Richard Kingi, Matt Toomua, James O'Connor.

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