NEWPORT Gwent Dragons pair Ceri Sweeney and Hal Luscombe are set to be the centres for Wales when they begin their defence of the Six Nations Championship against England at Twicken-ham on February 4.

Wales are without last season's successful centre partnership of Gavin Henson and Tom Shanklin for the first two games at least, and Sonny Parker has just announced his retirement from international rugby.

The availability of Mark Taylor is also restricted by club commitments with Sale, whom he joined on the basis of giving up international rugby, and Wales coach Mike Ruddock did not include him in his Six Nations squad which he named yesterday.

Ruddock dropped a pretty broad hint at his squad announcement that Sweeney and Luscombe could be the centres for the big kick-off.

Sweeney, it appears, is more than well placed to start in the number 12 position where he was groomed during last summer's North American tour.

Luscombe's main challenger at outside centre is Matthew Watkins, who played there against Australia.

Luscombe missed the Autumn series with a broken thumb but was a member of the Grand Slam squad, playing against England and Italy and going on as a replacement against Scotland before a knee injury took its toll.

"We had been looking at Sonny as more of a 13 and Hal and Matthew were probably ahead of him there," said Ruddock. "Ceri is an option at 12 and hopefully a fit Gavin Henson will return which would give us our compliment of four centres,"

But Dragons team-mate Luke Charteris is likely to be out for six weeks with a damaged shoulder and was excluded from the squad, as reported in yesterday's later editions of the Argus.

That would put him out of the first three Six Nations games and leave him struggling to be considered for the final two against Italy and France.

Wales physiotherapist Mark Davies said, "Luke has got a big tear in his shoulder and needs a further three-week rest period and a further week in rehabilitation before resuming rugby training/contact work. That means a six-week lay-off."

Lock partner Ian Gough is a certainty for the England game judging by the make-up of the squad. After making a successful return to the Welsh team in the autumn internationals against South Africa and Australia, Gough is now poised for his first Six Nations start for four years.

Only two specialist locks have been named - Gough and Robert Sidoli - with Jonathan Thomas and Michael Owen both able to play there.

Ruddock has included Bath back row forward Gareth Delve after an horrendous run of injuries while Scarlets wing Mark Jones also returns after a near three-year injury absence.

"I've been very impressed with Gareth, the way he's come back from injury to play excellently for Bath," said Ruddock.

"And it's a tribute to Mark Jones who has been determined to get back to that level. "I'm optimistic about Gavin Henson's fitness.

"He's a class player who's in a professional environment training and practising skills every day so he should be up to scratch when he resumes."