Wales coach Graham Henry has backed off in his attempts to pursuade Yorkshire-born Liam Botham to play for Wales rather than England.

Henry forced Botham to weigh up his options ater hinting he would name him in a trial line-up in the run up to the Six Nations Championship starting on February 5.

But the move prompted such controversy, Henry decided not to name Botham among the 60-odd trialists to be put through their paces on January 29.

He says he wants to give Botham more time to consider his international future.

The 22-year-old son of former England cricketer Ian, Liam earnt a call-up to the England U21 side two years ago but has never been picked for the A side or the senior team.

But Botham has been playing for Cardiff for the last two and a half years and would therefore qualify to play for Wales in October under a three-year residency rule.

Botham, who switched from cricket to rugby union in order to avoid comparisons with his father, says he will deliver his decision on January 31.

"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."

Full list of layers for Wales trial (names in brackets are second-half replacements) on January 29:

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.