Jenkins backs under-fire captain

Wales head coach Gareth Jenkins insists he never considered dropping under-pressure captain Stephen Jones for Saturday's RBS 6 Nations clash with England.

Jones has been passed fit to play after taking a blow to the face in Wales'

defeat to Italy and will lead out an unchanged team at the Millennium Stadium.

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It is a huge match for Wales, who are desperate to end a run of five straight

defeats and avoid the dreaded Six Nations whitewash. Last weekend's 23-20 defeat

to the Azzurri leaves them facing a second wooden spoon in four seasons.

There had been suggestions, most notably from ex-international Phil Bennett,

that Jones should be removed from the firing line for his own benefit.

The Scarlets fly-half has been under increasing pressure this season and has

not won any of the six Tests in which he has captained Wales since taking over

last autumn.

But Jenkins today backed his skipper to the hilt.

"Stephen's contribution is invaluable, he has been inspirational and hugely

encouraging to the squad as we lift ourselves this week and he is a huge

leader," said Jenkins.

"The strengths that we see from Stephen inside the camp may not be obvious to

everyone on the outside, but he brings an emotional intensity and positive input

to his leadership role that makes him invaluable to this team.

"We are hugely disappointed we haven't won yet. We have a big week in front

us where the whole team needs to be lifted.

"The team needs its captain, it needs his emotion, it needs his support. He

is very much an integral part of the preparations this week.

"It is a major boost to the side that the captain will be able to take to the

field.

"Steve took a nasty knock last week but he delivered on the field exactly

what we wanted him to do."

Jones took a punch to the face during last weekend's defeat to Italy and was

forced to leave the field after his vision became impaired.

But he was passed fit by physio Mark Davies and, with prop Chris Horsman and

hooker Matthew Rees also shaking injury concerns, Jenkins was able to name an

unchanged 22-man squad.

The show of faith came under fire from former Test scrum-half Terry Holmes

after Wales let a seven-point lead slip against Italy.

Holmes backed the decision to include Jones, but he would move the skipper to

inside centre and allow James Hook to play fly-half with Mike Phillips promoted

to scrum-half.

Holmes said: "I think we need to make changes. I don't think it was unlucky

we didn't win the game. It was a performance that wasn't up to standard."

Jenkins insisted his decision to keep the same 22-man squad was not a reward

for their performance but a challenge to repay his loyalty.

"The message is not that we got everything right last week, but that we

believe this group of players is capable of getting it right - and capable of

beating England," said Jenkins.

"They have a second chance as a group to prove what they can do and we are

all backing them to do it.

"We haven't won a game in this Championship and that hurts the whole squad

and management team - but we said we had been able to select our strongest side

against Italy and we still believe that to be true and have endorsed that

selection this weekend.

"There are things we need to change on match-day to come away with a win, but

the selection process we have gone through tells us that this is the right team

to beat England.

"There was a danger of making changes for change's sake and when we took all

of the emotion out of the defeat last weekend and looked at the facts it became

obvious to us that we have the right players in the right places.

"We have learnt a harsh lesson and the same players have the chance to prove

they can be better than that.

"We don't think we are very far away from putting the kind of performances

together that will start winning us matches."