WALES will play all three major Southern Hemisphere rugby super powers in the Autumn at the Millennium Stadium after clinching a mouth watering celebration game against New Zealand on November 5.

They had already arranged matches against South Africa and Australia in the November window for Autumn internationals and officially announced the New Zealand fixture at a Millennium Stadium Press conference this morning.

Both Wales and New Zealand wanted the match to take place, but the date proved a problem, Wales wanting November 5 and New Zealand December 3.

Wales objected to the December date because of club and regional commitments and New Zealand to November because that date was just two weeks after the end of their inter-provincial competition giving insufficient time for the All Blacks to prepare.

But the Welsh Rugby Union have won the day, New Zealand giving way because they wanted their first Grand Slam tour of the United Kingdom since 1978.

The fixture will mark the centenary of fixtures between the two nations and the famous Bob Deans incident of 1905. And for Wales, facing all three top Southern Hemisphere countries could hardly be a more appropriate way of celebrating their 125th anniversary. Wales will also play Fiji in their Autumn series.

"It's a momentous occasion, it's going to be fantastic, specifically New Zealand with the 100th anniversary of that match and the disputed try," said WRU chief executive David Moffett today.

One slight problem for Wales could be over the release of Wales' French and English based players for the early November date.

But Moffett said, "We're confident we'll be able to get the players. We've got the approval of the IRB, albeit without regulation nine governing the automatic release of players, because it's such an important occasion with Welsh rugby's 125th anniversary, the 100th anniversary of that match and Cardiff celebrating 100 years as a city."