Jones relishing Wales chance
PA Sport
May 31, 2007

Ceri Jones will summon all his experience on what for him is the foreign side of the scrum when he packs down for Wales against Australia at Brisbane's Suncorp Stadium on Saturday.

The 29-year-old, who usually packs down at loosehead prop for Harlequins, will take over from Adam Jones' number three jersey after he was ruled out by a torn calf muscle.

Gareth Jenkins' side go in search of revenge following their agonising 29-23 defeat in Sydney last weekend.

Jones won his first cap as a replacement for Iestyn Thomas at Telstra Stadium and is now poised to start his first game for Wales with Newport-Gwent Dragon Jamie Corsi, 19, also having been ruled out of the equation with a back injury.

Jones said: ``I'm over the moon at the opportunity more than anything. I feel for the boys who have gone down with injury and I'm just looking forward to this opportunity.

``It's a great chance for me to show what I can do. I played at tight-head prop in the Heineken Cup more than two years ago, against Munster and Castres so I've had some experience at a reasonably high level.

``I'm just looking forward to getting out there and getting involved and enjoying it.''

Wales are flying in Worcester's Chris Horsman to fill the vacant bench berth - something they had to do to avoid passive scrums in the event of more front-row forwards getting injured during the game.

As he revealed the news Jenkins said: ``We are making a late change. Adam Jones took a training injury on Wednesday that's going to take him out of the Test team for Saturday and he is being replaced by Ceri Jones, who will start at number three.

``Also Jamie Corsi suffered a back injury last week - a lifting injury in the gym. So Chris Horsman is on his way and is due to be with us by 11am (2am BST) on Friday. He will fill the bench cover when he arrives.

``I don't see it as putting pressure on Ceri. I see it as an opportunity for him. He has played tight-head lots of times and he is very comfortable in that position so that's an opportunity.

``We wouldn't have planned it this way, but now it's happened we're going to take the positive out of the situation, realising we have quality cover coming over as well in Chris Horsman and we're pretty positive about our selection.

``Chris was at home when we made the call to him and was ready to put his bag on his shoulder there and then. It was a great response for the cause as far as we were concerned.''

Stephen Larkham was named at fly-half for the Wallabies, but has yet to complete a training session this week as fears continue the hamstring strain that ruled him out of the first Test will not recover in time for Saturday's kick-off.

But Jenkins says Wales are concentrating on themselves this week, rather than who may or may not take the field for Australia.

``There is plenty of drama around both camps at the moment,'' said Jenkins.

``It's the way the game is. If Larkham gets there and does play he will be a big plus for them.

``If he doesn't they have got selection options and I'm sure they will be pretty comfortable with them. It's a call they're going to have to make.

``I don't know if he is out and we know there is not any clarity about his fitness yet. That's as much as we know about the situation.

``We've had a short turnaround as have Australia, but the emphasis has been on ourselves, not on them. We feel we can improve by 30%.

``We've worked all week and tried to achieve that in our training sessions. There is too much uncertainty to get too much involved in any concerns over who they will have at number 10.''

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