FEROCIOUS

A year ago Wales started on a Six Nations Championship roll which was to lead all the way to their first Grand Slam for 27 years by beating England in their first game.

A year on it's England first up again, but this time it's at Twickenham, Wales will be without Gavin Henson whose last ditch kick gave them that momentous victory, and England are reviving after a powerful Autumn series.

They demolished Australia and pushed the all-conquering New Zealand team to the limit before going down, and they have built up real momentum through their mighty pack, prop Andrew Sheridan and Bath locks Danny Grewcock and Steve Borthwick the real heavyweights.

Wales realise what's coming. "We know it's going to be ferocious out l continued from back there, they will be running straight lines at us and the biggest battle will be for parity up front in the scrums and line-outs," admitted Ruddock.

"Two years ago we only managed a 55% success rate in the line-out and our scrum was under attack, so we expect those areas to be under pressure again."

That means a leading role for Newport Gwent Dragons lock Ian Gough, who makes his first Six Nations start for almost four years after his successful return against South Africa and Australia in November.

Gough will win his 26th cap and will have a major role to play against Grewcock. Ruddock remains optimistic, saying "We were able to match them in scrum and line-out last season and we want to reproduce the same kind of performance again.

"We are up for the challenge, excited about the prospect of playing England at Twickenham and liberated by the knowledge that if they play the way we know they can we have a chance of frightening them.

"They're a formidable side with a front row of Lions and leaders throughout and they probably have more cohesion than us at the moment in contrast to last year when we played them at a good time for us."

Hal Luscombe steps into the outside centre role vacated by the injured Tom Shanklin in his first start for Wales in his favourite position after starring there for the Dragons this season.

He forms a new partnership with former Newport player Matthew Watkins, who occupies a comparatively unfamiliar inside centre position.

But Ruddock has no qualms about pairing them. "You could argue that the centre partnership is not unlike the one formed by Tom Shanklin and Gavin Henson which fared so well last season," he said.

"Hal is a similar player to Tom in terms of his physicality and ability to run some exceptional angles and Matthew is more than capable of producing some magic of his own."

Winger Mark Jones, like Gough, returns after a lengthy absence. The Llanelli Scarlets winger has fought back from two career-threatening knee injuries and makes his first Wales appearance since the 2003 World Cup, against England in the quarter-final.

Apart from Jones and Luscombe the other changes from Wales' last game against Australia are the return of scrum half Dwayne Peel and prop Adam Jones.

Number eight Michael Owen makes a trio of Dragons players in the team while Gareth Cooper and Ceri Sweeney are among the replacements alongside former Newport back row forward Alix Popham, who steps in for Dafydd Jones, banned for three weeks last night after being sent off playing for the Scarlets in Ulster.