Humphreys asked to rebuild Wales out of Roman ruins

If Clive Woodward springs surprises, Steve Hansen drops bombshells – and from a serious height, too. The Wales coach yesterday recalled Jonathan Humphreys, a few days short of his 34th birthday and in his fourth season of international oblivion, as hooker and captain for this weekend's Six Nations scrap with England in Cardiff. Had Hansen named Shirley Bassey at loose-head prop and picked The Stereophonics as his back-row trio, he could not conceivably have raised more eyebrows.

Humphreys believed, perfectly reasonably, that his Test career was at an end, having not featured among the Red Dragonhood since the 1999 World Cup – an impression that led, at least in part, to his decision to forsake his beloved Cardiff and join Bath last summer. But he knows what it is to captain his country in lean times: he led Wales on 17 occasions between 1995 and 1997, suffering 11 defeats, some of them embarrassing. While there is more than an outside chance of him experiencing further humiliation at the Millennium Stadium on Saturday, he intends to squeeze every last drop of value from this extraordinary exhumation.

England were forced into a change of their own yesterday when Julian White, the Bristol prop, withdrew with knee trouble and gave way to Robbie Morris, the uncapped tight-head specialist from Northampton. Big news? Not by Welsh standards. When Hansen revealed his response to last weekend's horrible defeat in Rome, there were seven new faces – or, in Humphreys case, an old-new face – and two positional switches. Wales will take the field with a revamped back three, a restructured midfield and a remodelled loose combination. Anything could happen, and probably will.

"On a scale of one to 10, this surprise is up there with the 10s," Humphreys admitted. "I received a call from Alan Phillips [the team manager] on Tuesday night, who asked me if I was prepared to help out. I agreed and travelled down, thinking I'd be on the bench. I then had a meeting with Steve, who offered me a starting place and the captaincy. This isn't long term – had a number of other hookers been fit it wouldn't have happened, so my aspirations are solely focused on this one game – but it's not something I could ever have turned down. Fate is a funny thing, and I'm delighted to be here."

Colin Charvis, the Swansea flanker who led Wales against the Italians, has been demoted to the bench, along with both half-backs, Iestyn Harris and Dwayne Peel. "No one knows how much I care," said Charvis, who bravely turned up to face the Welsh press that had spent the previous few days lambasting him from pillar to post. "The important thing is to back Jonathan and allow him to show his strengths as a leader." Hansen, a dedicated supporter of Charvis, described the fallen captain as "our one world-class player" and indicated that he would return at the helm the moment his form justified a recall to the starting line-up.

Characteristically, Humph-reys mounted a strong defence of Charvis. "Some of the things written about him recently have been horrific," he said. "People have called him the second most unpopular man in Wales, behind Bin Laden and ahead of Saddam Hussein. I just don't know where that stuff comes from. There should be leaders all the way down the spine of an international team, but when a side fails to perform, the captain always takes the flak. It is a difficult thing to be captain of a country that is not as successful as everyone wants it to be, and yes, you could describe it as a poisoned chalice. But I know the kind of man Colin is and how much the shirt means to him."

By far the most significant of the many other changes is the introduction of Ceri Sweeney, the Pontypridd outside-half, ahead of Harris after only one appearance as a replacement. "I'm sure both players will spend some time on the park, but Ceri is right up for this and we think he's the man to start," Hansen said.

Elsewhere, Gavin Thomas, of Bath, and the exciting newcomer from Llanelli, Dafydd Jones, come into the back row for Charvis and Michael Owen, respectively, while another Bath player, Gareth Cooper, takes over from Peel at scrum-half. Peculiarly, there will be more Bath players wearing red shirts than white ones.

It was the Humphreys issue that overshadowed it all, though. Asked what he had imagined himself doing on Saturday afternoon, he grinned craggily and replied: "I'm not a great rugby watcher, so I'd have been wandering around B and Q with an ice cream." Odd, very odd. But nowhere near as odd as appearing in the middle of his country's front row, three and a half years after being put out to grass.

SIX NATIONS TEAMS

WALES (v England, Millennium Stadium, Cardiff, Saturday): K Morgan (Swansea); R Williams (Cardiff), M Taylor (Swansea), T Shanklin (Saracens), G Thomas (Bridgend); C Sweeney (Pontypridd), G Cooper (Bath); I Thomas (Llanelli), J Humphreys (Bath, capt), B Evans (Swansea), R Sidoli (Pontypridd), S Williams (Northampton), D Jones (Llanelli), M Williams (Cardiff), G Thomas (Bath). Replacements: G Williams (Bridgend), G Jenkins (Pontypridd), G Llewellyn (Neath), C Charvis (Swansea), D Peel (Llanelli), I Harris (Cardiff), M Watkins (Llanelli).

IRELAND (v Italy, Stadio Flaminio, Rome, Saturday): G Dempsey (Terenure)/G Murphy (Leicester); G Murphy (Leicester)/J Kelly (Cork Constitution), B O'Driscoll (Blackrock, capt); K Maggs (Bath), D Hickie (St Mary's), D Humphreys (Dungannon), P Stringer (Shannon); R Corrigan (Greystones), S Byrne (Blackrock), J Hayes (Shannon), G Longwell (Ballymena), M O'Kelly (St Mary's), V Costello (St Mary's), K Gleeson (St Mary's), A Foley (Shannon). Replacements: F Sheahan (Cork Constitution), M Horan (Shannon), L Cullen (Blackrock), A Quinlan (Shannon), G Easterby (Llanelli), P Burke (Harlequins), R Henderson (Young Munster)

FRANCE (v Scotland, Stade de France, St-Denis, Sunday): C Pointrenaud (Toulouse); A Rougerie (Montferrand), X Garbajosa (Toulouse), D Traille (Pau), V Clerc (Toulouse); F Gelez (Agen), F Galthié (Stade Français, capt); J-J Crenca (Agen), R Ibanez (Castres), S Marconnet (Stade Français), F Pelous (Toulouse), O Brouzet (Montferrand), S Betsen (Biarritz), O Magne (Montferrand), I Harinordoquy (Pau). Replacements: J-B Rué (Agen), C Califano (Saracens), D Auradou (Stade Français), S Chabal (Bourgoin), D Yachvili (Biarritz), G Merceron (Montferrand), T Castaignède (Saracens).