WALES coach Gareth Jenkins is poised to unleash an exciting midfield trio of Mike Phillips, Stephen Jones and James Hook against Fiji in their must win final World Cup Group B clash against Fiji in Nantes a week tomorrow.

The winners face a quarter-final against the mighty South Africans and if Phillips, Jones and Hook come through well against the Fijians if they are selected, as they should be, they will then take on the Springboks.

Phillips produced a man-of-the-match performance in the 11-try 72-18 romp against Japan at the Millennium Stadium last night in his first start in the tournament.

Jenkins had been reluctant to play him, preferring Dwayne Peel, but the Scarlets scrum half was disappointing in the first two pool matches against Canada and Australia.

Jones appears to have nailed down the outside half position now, as well as the captaincy in the absence of Gareth Thomas, after overcoming severe criticism to rediscover his form and give the side some direction.

And Hook has shown such delightful touches as a replacement against Australia and against the Japanese that a place has got to be found for him to accommodate his creativity, and that looks like being in the problem number 12 position.

The performance of the trio has clearly given Jenkins food for thought as the Welsh party head out of the goldfish bowl that is Welsh rugby and return to their French base at La Baule today.

"Stephen, Mike and James put a good mix of rugby together," said the coach after last night's game. "We were varied and we executed our moves well and these three players played a part in that.

"Mike won the man-of-the-match award and rightly so. The competition there is healthy, there are a lot of combinations that are working well, but it's not just about Stephen and James, it's about getting the results.

"We've got Fiji in nine days time and if we can achieve our goal we'll be in the quarter-finals. We grew up a lot tonight with this performance.

"But it's important as soon as we get to France that we take a couple of days away from the training field, though we go back excited and with confidence."

Jenkins, who has been under huge pressure and has got himself sidetracked by a row with the Press, has bought himself some time after Wales' biggest World Cup victory.

But he will be aware the first half performance against Japan still lacked conviction with too much ball spilled.

And he will be concerned by some error ridden performances from an out-of-sorts Kevin Morgan, and it could be that Gareth Thomas will return, if fit, at full back in another selection headache while Martyn Williams, Colin Charvis, Alix Popham, Jonathan Thomas and Michael Owen are all pushing hard for places in the back row.