ROSS Moriarty intends to be his own man for Wales against Australia this afternoon rather than attempting to be a Taulupe Faletau clone in Cardiff, writes Chris Kirwan.

The Gloucester back row forward has been given the nod to deputise at number eight for the injured Lions ace, who hopes to feature at some stage this autumn after suffering knee ligament damage on Bath debut in September.

Moriarty heads into the Wallabies fixture on the back of an excellent summer in which he started all three Tests in New Zealand at blindside flanker.

Combatative, abrasive, no-nonsense, the 22-year-old tries to stick to his guns whatever the number on his back.

"Nothing will change for me personally," said Moriarty, who links up with blindside Dan Lydiate and openside Justin Tipuric. "I will do what I've been doing and I'm looking forward to the challenge.

"I'm not fazed by it and what I do around the pitch will be the same; the only thing I'll have to concentrate on is scrum time, that's the only difference for me.

"My open field stuff is exactly the same and ball carrying has always been my main skill. It's just the scrum and hopefully there won't be too many of them."

Faletau, who has been a mentor to his deputy at training this week, has been a mainstay of the Wales side since his arrival on the Test stage in 2011 and his energy and work rate will be missed.

Moriarty, however, isn't worried about having to fill in for a superstar.

"I played against the All Blacks, it doesn't get much harder than that, so there's not a lot that can faze me in the Test match arena now I think," he said.