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JAMES HOOK will play full-back for Wales against England in the opening Six Nations game at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff on Friday night (ko 7.45pm). Morgan Stoddart is on the wing and Lee Byrne is on the bench.

WALES: James Hook; Morgan Stoddart, Jamie Roberts, Jonathan Davies, Shane Williams; Stephen Jones, Mike Phillips; Paul James, Matthew Rees (C), Craig Mitchell, Bradley Davies, Alun Wyn Jones, Dan Lydiate, Sam Warburton, Andy Powell. Replacements (to be confirmed): Richard Hibbard, John Yapp, Ryan Jones, Jonathan Thomas, Dwayne Peel, Rhys Priestland, Lee Byrne.

ENGLAND: B Foden (Northampton Saints); C Ashton (Northampton Saints), M Tindall (Gloucester, capt), S Hape (Bath), M Cueto (Sale Sharks); T Flood (Leicester Tigers), B Youngs (Leicester Tigers); A Sheridan (Sale Sharks), D Hartley (Northampton Saints), D Cole (Leicester Tigers), L Deacon (Leicester Tigers), T Palmer (Stade Francais), T Wood (Northampton Saints), J Haskell (Stade Francais), N Easter (Harlequins). Replacements: S Thompson (Leeds Carnegie), D Wilson (Bath), S Shaw (Wasps), J Worsley (Wasps), D Care (Harlequins), J Wilkinson (Toulon), M Banahan (Bath).

Wales assistant coach Rob Howley has predicted the game will be “a battle of inches not yards.”

Howley is in charge of a back line which sees Scarlets wing Morgan Stoddart return to international duty for the first time since the Autumn of 2008 and finds a place for Osprey Hook at full back with his regional colleague Lee Byrne on the bench.

Elsewhere the centre partnership of Jamie Roberts (Blues) and Jonathan Davies (Scarlets) which proved successful on the recent summer tour of New Zealand is restored with halfbacks Mike Phillips (Ospreys) and Stephen Jones (Scarlets) also retained.

Former IRB World Player of the Year Shane Williams (Ospreys) has returned from injury to take up his place on the wing and complete the back three alongside Stoddart and Hook.

Up front 25-year-old Ospreys tight-head Craig Mitchell wins his first start and his fifth cap alongside captain Matthew Rees (Scarlets) at hooker and regional colleague Paul James on the other side of the scrum.

The regular pairing of Alun-Wyn Jones (Ospreys) and Bradley Davies (Blues) make up the second row with Blues youngster Sam Warburton joining Dragons blindside Dan Lydiate on the flanks together with Wasps No8 Andy Powell.

“In the front row we have two guys who have done well at regional level and know each others games either side of our leader and the Lions hooker in Matthew Rees, so we are comfortable with the selection,” said Howley.

“The second row has been consistent in recent times and we have two good youngsters who have both been playing exceptionally well coming into the back row.

“Dan (Lydiate) was magnificent for us in the autumn and Sam (Warburton) has been going great for the Blues in Europe recently and there is a nice balance there with the ball carrying abilities of Andy Powell completing the trio.

“This is going to be a battle of inches and not yards and we know the pack can dominate like they did in our Autumn games we are in with a good chance.

“We did debate selection at fly half and elsewhere in the backs but we feel we have settled on the right pairing there with the experience they offer.

“Lee Byrne misses out solely through virtue of the fact he has had limited game time after injury and he will offer us some impact from the bench, which is fairly experienced in itself and will undoubtedly be utilised during the evening.

“We are playing England at the home of Welsh rugby at the start of the Rugby World Cup year so we are looking to get ourselves of to a great start and create some momentum and I can’t think of a better place for a Welshman to do that.”

On the bench Rhys Priestland is the only uncapped player – he will be Wales’ 1,079th player if he gets on – where he is joined by a wealth of experience in Sale scrum-half Dwayne Peel, lock/back row Ryan Jones and Jonathan Thomas (both Ospreys), Blues prop John Yapp, Ospreys hooker Richard Hibbard and the 38-times capped Byrne.

Meanwhile, Northampton flanker Tom Wood will make his England debut on Friday.

Wood was not included in Martin Johnson’s original 33-man squad but he has been promoted from the Saxons straight into the starting XV after injuries forced England to reshuffle their pack.

Lewis Moody and Tom Croft are both missing from the back row while Northampton lock Courtney Lawes is in danger of being sidelined for the whole championship with a knee injury.

With Moody out, Mike Tindall has been appointed England captain for the first time.

Wood, 24, will pack down at blindside flanker and offer England a back-row lineout option in Croft’s absence, while James Haskell will start in the less familiar role on the openside.

Leicester lock Louis Deacon returns in the second row to partner Tom Palmer in place of Lawes.

Wood is in his first year with Heineken Cup quarter-finalists Northampton after three seasons at Worcester.

He was born in Coventry and played for the Barkers’ Butts club, which lists Danny Grewcock and Neil Back among its international alumni.

Wood graduated through the Worcester academy and overcame a broken leg with a successful spell in New Zealand before forcing his way into the Warriors first team in the 2007-08 season.

The athletic 6ft 5in, 16st 7lb flanker broke into the Saxons squad this time last year and, after making an immediate impression at Franklin’s Gardens, he is now in line for his Test debut in Cardiff.

Wood will don the six jersey. Haskell is traditionally a blindside but his breakdown and turnover work has been one of the big improvements in his game since moving to Stade Francais.

Labels: fullback, James, start, Wales, WalesOnline

As trip wires go, it lacks the element of surprise. But the fact that England have fallen flat on their faces once before when confronted by the Dutch national cricket team is no guarantee against them again coming a cropper in Nagpur today.

"It underlines the point that you cannot underestimate teams like the Netherlands," said captain Andrew Strauss when asked about England's last-ball Lord's loss to the men in orange during the 2009 World Twenty20. "They have played a lot of cricket now and are a side with some obvious strengths. We need to be good enough to overcome those. If we are 10 per cent off and they have a good day, we're in trouble."

Bas Zuiderent, the former Sussex and now the Netherlands' most experienced batsman, agreed. "There is massive belief in our team that we can beat them," he said.

Whatever happens today, England's attempt to win the World Cup at the 10th time of asking will not be made or marred. Such is the format of this competition that big boys can lose to lesser lights at the group stage and still finish in a top four qualifying spot.

Being beaten, however, would leave only the minimum of margin for further error. And, in any event, a team that quietly fancies its chances of spreading a thick layer of icing on top of that perfectly created Ashes cake should not just put the Dutch in their place but do so with some style.

New Zealand, thumping Kenya by 10 wickets, Sri Lanka – crushing Canada by 210 runs – and Australia, overpowering the Zimbabweans, showed the sort of ruthlessness that has generally eluded England when up against small fry. Embarrassing losses have been few and far between but, generally, they make heavy weather of their task and, as a result, confidence levels take a hit.

England will hope to avoid any nervous moments today. But as for their chances of making a real impact over the next six weeks, it is difficult to know whether to feel optimistic about their prospects or simply resigned to witnessing another disappointing campaign to follow those let-downs of 1996, 1999, 2003 and 2007.

The captain is not one for finding his way onto the nearest rooftop and then shouting the odds. He spoke in measured terms before the Ashes series and did so again last night.

"Everyone is fit and healthy and ready to go," said Strauss, who indicated that a decision over whether to play No 1 spinner and new father Graeme Swann against the Dutch would be left until this morning. Swann arrived in India on Sunday following his paternity leave but the rest of the party were together in Bangladesh for a week.

"The six days we had there were really good in terms of preparation for the tournament. We were quite buoyed by our performance against Pakistan [a 67-run, warm-up match victory to follow the considerably less impressive 16-run win over Canada]. "It was a frustrating two or three weeks in Australia [losing the one-day series 6-1], with some key performers injured at the wrong time and not playing smart cricket. So it was reassuring to play the way we did against Pakistan."

Stuart Broad – bursting with energy and intent once again after having his Ashes tour cut short by injury – was the star act of those two practice games, taking five wickets in each. And Matt Prior produced a pair of promising innings at No 6. But the main talking point has been Kevin Pietersen's new job at the top of the order, a role which will continue to attract attention for as long as England remain in the tournament.

England have done very little to make opponents sit up and take notice during the last four World Cup campaigns (we can probably discount the tactic of opening the bowling with spinner Richard Illingworth in the 1996 quarter-final against Sri Lanka as he went for 72 off 10 overs and the game was lost with nine overs to spare). But the Pietersen ploy will cause a bit of head scratching.

It should not matter too much either way whether Pietersen piles in against the Dutch today. But if he can get a real feel for the job – and there were signs that he was doing that while making 66 against Pakistan last week – then England could be on to something (as they were when Ian Botham opened with a fair amount of success during the 1992 tournament).

There is plenty to be said for opening the batting in one-day cricket when the ball is hard and the field is up. But knowing when to attack and when to defend has not always come easily to Pietersen, to put it mildly, so watching him trying to weigh up situations should be fascinating.

Labels: England, flying, Independent, Pietersen, Running, start

Labels: avoid, blues, first, Hines, Nathan, Scots, Scotsman, start

Chris Powell's record-breaking start as Charlton boss ground to an abrupt halt at Hartlepool on Tuesday as the home side's 2-1 win dented the Addicks' automatic promotion push.

Powell had won all four games since being appointed at The Valley - the best start for a new boss in 105 years - but it counted for nothing as Gary Liddle's 62nd minute header claimed victory.

Andy Monkhouse had given the visitors a warning of what was to come when he struck the opener in the 14th minute. Nathan Eccleston hit a 54th minute equaliser but it was not enough to move his side out of fifth place.

Second-placed Bournemouth's hopes of drawing level with Brighton at the top of the table were put on hold when their game at rock-bottom Bristol Rovers was the victim of waterlogging. Exeter's clash with Swindon was also called off.

Darren Ferguson's Peterborough took advantage of surprise slip-ups elsewhere to move into the play-off places with a 2-0 win at Yeovil - but they left it late with both goals coming in the last five minutes from Craig Mackail-Smith and Grant Basey.

Oldham's push for an automatic promotion place was hit by a 1-0 defeat to Carlisle at Boundary Park. Craig Curran struck to win it for the Cumbrians 10 minutes from time.

And Milton Keynes Dons' hopes were also hit as they twice lost the lead in a 3-2 home defeat to Leyton Orient. Strikes from Dean Lewington and Jabo Ibehre were both cancelled out by Jimmy Smith before Jonathan Tehoue's 74th minute winner.

Craig Westcarr and a Nathan Clarke own goal gifted Notts County a 2-0 win over Colchester while there was more woe for Sheffield Wednesday who were dumped 3-0 at Tranmere and are in danger of getting sucked into a relegation battle.

In a vital match at the bottom, Walsall gave their survival hopes a huge boost with a tight 1-0 win over fellow strugglers Dagenham and Redbridge. William Grigg hit the winner nine minutes from time.

Labels: comes, Eurosport, Powellaposs, start, Yahoo

SkySports

Ireland start without Ferris Clubcall Ireland's injury list ahead of their Six Nations opener against Italy has grown with the announcement that Stephen Ferris is ruled out. The Ulster player will sit out the game in Rome after suffering a knee injury. Seven other players are already ruled ... Ferris to miss opener for IrelandYahoo! Eurosport UK Ferris ruled out of Rome openerIrish Independent Ferris to miss Italy tripSkySports BBC News -Belfast Telegraph -ESPNscrum.com all 25 news articles »

Labels: Clubcall, Ferris, Ireland, start, without

Ferrari's Felipe Massa endured a tough start to F1 2011 pre-season testing on Thursday.

Massa, who was making his debut at the wheel of the new Ferrari F150, after team-mate Fernando Alonso had driven in it on days one and two at Valencia, was forced to sit out a large part of the day after he suffered an oil leak on his very first run.

?It was a silly thing really,? explained Ferrari technical director Aldo Costa to the Scuderia?s official website. ?A pipe came undone and the oil that escaped ended up on the exhausts and tyres.

"That led to the spin and the small fire which caused the damage that led to a long stop in the garage. It was a shame, as until this point, everything had gone smoothly.?

Massa was subsequently confined to the garage until 14.30 hours local time and although he then ran pretty much non-stop until the session ended at 17.00, finishing the day with 80 laps on the board, he was still pretty miffed.

?We had a problem right at the start of the morning, when I was out on very old tyres,? Massa added.

?It was not nice having to stop pretty much before I?d started the real work, but then, it was a relief to find out it was nothing that serious. Unfortunately though, I lost a lot of time and, in the afternoon I then tried to make up for it and get a feeling for the new car.?

Despite his frustration though, encouragingly, after his problems last year with the Bridgestone tyres, he did report he was ?pleased? with how the new Pirellis behaved.

?I think that the fact there is a definite level of degradation is a positive thing in terms of the spectacle,? he continued. ?It?s a shame I wasn?t able to do more laps, but the feeling I had was similar to the one from Abu Dhabi, even if that was at the wheel of a very different car.

?In my opinion, there is not that much that needs changing and I think Pirelli is working in the right direction.

"We did not try the hardest tyre here, because this track is not best suited to them: when we have done that, then it will be possible to give a more complete evaluation of them.?

To view times the combined times from this week?s three-day test at Valencia, CLICK HERE.

Labels: Eurosport, Massa, start, Yahoo