FIVE NATIONS' CHAMPIONSHIP: ...and a Welsh hard place

IF ANYTHING was likely to cheer up Welsh rugby fans during the preliminaries to the Five Nations' Championship, it was the return of Robert Jones to the No 9 shirt. After languishing in the wilderness for almost two years, Jones will play against France at the Parc des Princes on Saturday, a sure sign of increasing confidence among the Welsh selectors.

For Jones is a thoroughbred: a thoroughbred Welshman, and a thoroughbred footballer. Small, dark and quick, he looks like a Welsh scrum-half, and he plays like one. The man who replaced him answered none of those descriptions. Rupert Henry St John BarkerMoon was an English import brought in on a residential qualification by the Welsh coach, Alan Davies, to impose a greater physical presence behind a pack whose weaknesses had been undermining Jones's subtle skills. In the short term, the plan worked astonishingly well. Feeding on the enthusiasm of the hook-nosed Moon, Wales were on the brink of the unlikeliest of Grand Slams when England turned them back at Twickenham.

But the renaissance of Wales's front five had been established, and it was becoming increasingly obvious that Moon lacked the finesse to exploit an increasingly effective platform. The campaign for Jones's restoration gathered momentum after the Barbarians' 23-15 victory over South Africa at Lansdowne Road in December, in which he gave the sort of display that has good judges with long memories ranking him third after Haydn Tanner and Gareth Edwards (Jones's own early hero) in the all-time list of Welshscrum-halves.

His half-back partner that day was Craig Chalmers of Scotland, who sounded as pleased as any Welshman last week at the news of the 29-year-old Jones's return to the international stage. "I'll admit that he's a friend of mine," Chalmers said on the phone from Edinburgh, "but even so I couldn't understand it when he wasn't picked for Wales last year." From a stand-off's perspective, Jones's prime asset is his pass, which is long and fast and accurate, with many variations that are the product of endless practice and refinement since the age of eight. "Robert gives you so much time on the ball," Chalmers, who has also played with Jones as a British Lion, said. "It gives you more options. Neil Jenkins will be happy to discover he has a couple of extra seconds every time he gets the ball in Paris. It means the outside-half can stand further away, which makes it harder for the back row to get at you."

Jones is only 5ft 8in, although his compact frame contains 11-and-a-half stone of muscle. "Robert's not a big guy," Chalmers observed, "but he does ask questions of the back row. Maybe he's not as physical as a Gary Armstrong or a Dave Loveridge or a Rupert Moon, but who says a scrum-half has to be? His job is to pass the ball."

The call into Saturday's starting XV came from Gareth Jenkins, Alan Davies's assistant coach. "It was out of the blue," Jones said last week over a sandwich after an informal morning training session with his Swansea and Wales team-mate Anthony Clement. "There had been a lot of hype since the Barbarians game to say I should be picked, but I didn't really expect anything. Gareth Jenkins told me I'd been brought back to do a job, obviously to provide quick ball to the backs, which has been lacking over the last few matches. I've spoken to Alan Davies since, and he's reiterated that."

When he was left out of the side two years ago, Jones was unhappy about both the selection of an Englishman to replace him and the fact that he was made a scapegoat for the forwards' failings. "Alan Davies made that clear to me," he said. "He told me, `Until we get the pack right, so that we can exploit your attributes, you're going to be sitting things out.' He spoke to me early on last season to endorse what he'd said the year before, to say that the pack weren't performing as he wanted, and until that happened they'd stick with Rupert. He did talk to me prior to the last game, the England game, and admitted that the pack were playing well, but in the light of the victories and the general performance, it was difficult to change the side. Which I canunderstand, but it was disappointing."

As, in Jones's eyes, is Davies's current campaign to unearth players from around the world with Welsh qualifications, however tenuous. "It's hard when you see players who've done nothing for Wales in the past, whether they're Welsh or not, getting the opportunities. I think people like Alan have got to look at keeping everyone happy in that respect. I can understand why it's being done. We want the best possible team on the field. But in Wales you've got youngsters who are ambitious, who've worked hard to get to a standard where they play international rugby, and unfortunately they're missing out because we're looking for players who haven't been through the ranks. As soon as Rupert got in the squad, I felt very disappointed. He cam e in as understudy to me, but there were boys like Paul John who had done well at club rugby and had done it right the way through schools, youth, and all other levels. It was a big knock in the teeth to them."

Ironically, Jones's continued exclusion from the Welsh team and a successful summer playing for Western Province in Cape Town led to rumours late last year that he was being offered the chance to see out his international career in a South African jersey. "I don't think it ever was serious," he said. "But it's flattering to know that there was interest in me from a country as traditionally great in rugby terms."

By coincidence or design, the rumours concentrated the minds of those responsible for the fortunes of another traditionally great rugby country, and on Saturday there will be a 49th cap for Jones, who played his first 20-odd games with Jonathan Davies atoutside-half and now resumes his interrupted partnership with Neil Jenkins, another controversial figure.

"Obviously, Neil's biggest attribute is his kicking," Jones said. "But if you talk to players who've played with him, they all say that he's not just a kicking outside-half. He's got a lot more about him. The way he plays for Pontypridd when he's given more time and space, and I suppose when he's got the freedom to go and do things . . . Well, I think we've got bogged down in flip-charts and game plans. Alan Davies always says, `It's an option,' but when you're going over an option time and again, it becomes the first thing in your mind, and you tend to do that whether you want to or not. I think Welsh rugby has tended to do that over the past couple of years, stick with things instead of looking at options and what have you. Neil has fallen into that trap somewhat, but he has got a lot offer. He can run, he can break, he passes well off both hands. He's got nearly 30 caps, but he's still only 23 and I don't think he's the most confident of players. Somebody has got to be able to say look, use your natural ability as well as what everybody knows you've got. The players around you know what you've got, so let's bloody see it!"

Jones's experience gives weight to his calm assessment of Wales's prospects for the crucial year ahead, particularly the World Cup. "I've always been fairly optimistic," he said. "But if we're trying to be realistic as well, you've got France, who might

be a temperamental side but are certainly a quality side. You've got England, a very good steady outfit who are always going to be there or thereabouts. And then New Zealand, South Africa and Australia. So you're talking about five teams there who realistically should be able to beat Wales. But the World Cup is a one-off. We've yet to produce the form we're capable of. We haven't done it for years. Hopefully it will start to come in the Five Nations, in time for the World Cup. Being optimistic, and look ing at the progress that's been made over the past two years, we certainly can get to the top four. But it's going to be hard work."