By Lestyn
February 5 2003

Yet another key player has been ruled out of beginning of the Six nations and this time it's a half back. It leaves Steve Hansen with a big decision to make.

This time it's Stephen Jones who will have to sit out the opener with Italy and the match with England. Jones was almost certain to carry on in the number 10 shirt, which He wore against New Zeland in the Autumn internationals. His absence leaves Hansen with a choice between Iestyn Harris and Ceri Sweeney. Both are inexperienced at international level. Harris's only start at fly half was at Twickenham in last year's tournament. Many doubts remain about whether He's good enough at this level, in such a key position.

Sweeney is the other option, the 23 year old is yet another exciting product of the Ponty outside half factory, who's been in top form for the last two seasons. Hansen's past selection's suggest He'll go for Harris, but if the Cardiff man is moved to inside centre to compensate for Sonny Parkers absence, Sweeney may get the nod. However that seems unlikely as Hansen is not going to call up any back up.

"It's not likely that we will call anyone in to replace Stephen, It's obviously disappointing to lose a player of his calibre and it is a blow to our preparations, but we have enough cover within the squad in that position to make it unnecessary to call on anyone else at this late stage. It goes without saying that we hope Stephen a speedy recovery and hope he can be back with us as soon as possible, but this is now an opportunity for Ceri and Iestyn to step up," Hansen said.

None of this will be helped by Llanelli and Ponty's insistence to play their international players in the cup on Saturday. It would never happen if the WRU's idea of a season structure wasn't so crazy. After month's of no action on the pitch, premiership club's have had packed week's recently. Ponty's squad is now stretched to the bare minimum. The Turks really are taking the threat of division 1 leaders Pontypool seriously, looking at what they did to Swansea last year.

Add Jones's broken thumb picked up in Llanelli's win against Cardiff last night to Sonny Parker, Robin McBryde and Andy Marinos's injuries (although in all honesty the last isn't that bigger blow), and We've got problems....