Ryan Jones doubtful for Ireland as Wales back row woe deepens

WALES are facing a back-row crisis ahead of their visit to Ireland in 13 days time.

With the disgraced Andy Powell out in the cold, captain Ryan Jones has emerged as a Dublin doubt after struggling through the 26-20 defeat to France with a calf injury.

“I struggled all week and was not able to do much training in the build-up to the game,” said Jones.

“I managed to get through the match, but it is pretty sore. We will see what the next couple of days might bring up.”

The Wales squad meet up again tomorrow with Jones expected to see a specialist this week. If the Ospreys skipper fails to make the Croke Park clash, Warren Gatland faces a No 8 headache with no clear replacement in the current squad.

The options would be Dan Lydiate, Sam Warburton or Jonathan Thomas, but the trio are natural flankers.

Gatland would most likely turn to Thomas or Blues rookie Warburton who packed down at the base of the scrum in training last week in the absence of Jones.

But Wales could go outside the squad and call in Gloucester captain Gareth Delve.

Wales insist Powell still has an international future, but it is highly unlikely that the Lions back-rower will return to the squad so soon after being dropped.

The 28-year-old was punished after the Scotland game when he drove a golf buggy along the M4 motorway, allegedly under the influence of alcohol.

Powell missed the French defeat after being thrown out of the squad and is due to appear at Cardiff magistrates’ court on Tuesday.

Gatland is also waiting on the fitness of Lions front-row duo Matthew Rees and Gethin Jenkins, plus Blues hooker Gareth Williams.

Rees has not featured in the Six Nations because of a groin injury and is set to return for the Scarlets against Ulster on Friday.

Jenkins limped off with a recurrence of a calf problem against Scotland last week and faces a race against time to prove his fitness.

Deiniol Jones’ rib injury will be monitored after the Blues lock was forced off in the first half against France.

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Six Nations 2010: Ireland recall victory over Scotland that set the ball rolling

Heaven knows what the so-called Celtic Tiger era was all about, but nothing seemed to epitomise those frantic, party-hearty, naughty, boom years more than Ireland's amazing 27-25 win at the Stade de France 10 years ago.
On a bright Sunday afternoon in March Ireland, without a victory in Paris in 28 years, conjured rugby from the gods. Brian O'Driscoll scored three tries in 80 minutes, which equalled Ireland's total in Paris for the previous 20 years, and David Humphreys, who had missed a kick to win the corresponding game at Lansdowne Road the previous year, nervelessly smacked over the winning penalty three minutes from time.

For Ireland – the sporting nation and the country itself – it was a high point after years in the doldrums and as the new millennium dawned, all dreams now seemed permissible. Much of that has dissolved before our eyes and the economy is in tatters again, but for Irish rugby it really was the beginning of something good, one of the few enduring legacies of the Celtic Tiger.

Admittedly it has not always been the smoothest of paths. Rather typically, at the time, Ireland slipped to a disappointing home defeat against Wales just two weeks after that glorious day in Paris, showing an inconsistency they have had to battle against, and further down the line the 2007 World Cup debacle remains as inexplicable as ever. But that win in Paris undoubtedly provided the emotional juice and inspiration for just about everything good that followed.

"I was just a young kid that day wearing a jersey about four sizes too big for me. I looked faintly ridiculous," recalls O'Driscoll. "I was pretty naive in many ways but that was a really good thing because I had no preset idea as to how big the occasion would be and how big the win was. That came home when you saw all the emotion on the faces of our older players.

"It was another important rugby match at a big venue but there was no baggage or fear as far as I was concerned. It changed my life though. The day we got back I went to a schools cup final in Dublin and got absolutely mobbed for an hour or so by kids wanting autographs, which was entirely new to me. Something very big had clearly happened. It was a huge boost for Irish rugby."

O'Driscoll, Ronan O'Gara and John Hayes remain in the Ireland team from that day, 90+ cap veterans who have fulfilled most of their rugby dreams, although they have yet to win in Paris again, something which is high on their personal agendas on Saturday.

Others, such as Peter Clohessy and Mick Galwey, were experiencing something very special after long years at the coalface while Keith Wood, who had just started his second term as Ireland captain that season, was inspired enough to defy serious groin and shoulder injuries for another three years until the 2003 World Cup.

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