GWENT Dragons forwards Michael Owen and Rhys Oakley face an anxious wait to see whether they make Wales' World Cup squad, writes Robin Davey.

Both impressed in Saturday's friendly against Ireland at Lansdowne Road, Owen in a relatively untried position of lock and Oakley on his debut at blindside flanker.

Neither makes the starting line-up against England next Saturday in the second of Wales' four August World Cup warm-up matches.

But both will hope for another opportunity before Hansen names the final 30 at the start of next month.

Owen is probably the more likely to make it, but Oakley has time on his side at only 22, as has Nathan Brew, the Newport centre now with Gwent Dragons.

He didn't make it from the bench on to the field in Dublin, and neither did Dragons' captain Andy Marinos.

As neither feature against England the centre pair may well miss out in the final World Cup shakedown.

Oakley felt the occasion more than matched his level of expectancy.

"The passion and the pride were there, it was everything I thought it would be, and more," he said.

"I thought I put in a very solid performance, it wasn't the best game I've ever had nor the worst.

"Ireland have got a great back row strength, and it was a hard challenge for me, but I thought I did well.

"There's a lot more in me, and now I've tasted international rugby I'd like a lot more." Owen was also pleased with his form after switching positions and featuring quite strongly.

"I felt quite comfortable, I got the ball in my hands a bit and was quite pleased," he said.

"Steve (Hansen) wants me to play at lock for Wales in the immediate future, but I don't want to lose the back row and hopefully I'll play here for Gwent.

"But it's going to help me get selected for Wales by being able to play in two positions. "Everyone is bursting to get into the World Cup squad which is good, there's a lot of competition and everyone is working hard in every respect, we're trying to get there."

Brothers Nicky and Jamie Robinson, playing for Wales for the first time together, were less than pleased with Wales' performance.

"Though we played well at times we let ourselves down," said Nicky, adding "As soon as we got the ball we turned it over too quickly.

"We struggled a bit and we didn't keep as much ball as we would have liked.

"I did a couple of decent things, but there's a lot more to do. I kicked the ball away too much, but it's hard work when there's a lot of green jerseys in front of you.

"I was a bit nervous, but you can only learn from that and get better."

Jamie said pointedly after getting a game under his belt, "It's nice to be reminded we're professional rugby players not trainers.

"With the possession Ireland had we defended well, though we let them through a few times.

"The average age of our side is 25, take out a couple and that would bring it down even more.

"Considering the time we had together I thought we did OK."

Richard Parks, the former Newport flanker, was reasonably content. "It was a start," he said. "I can't remember much about the game, but we put in a creditable performance and I thought I did myself justice.

"There are some areas we need to work on, and we showed our inexperience, but we put in a creditable performance and a lot of us got valuable experience."