Fragile Wales turn back to Harris as stand-off Jones breaks thumb

Where English props lead, Welsh outside-halves tend to follow. A matter of hours after Clive Woodward, the England manager, confessed to a serious shortage of tight-head specialists after the failures of Phil Vickery and Julian White to participate in the Red Rose Army's two-day training session in Surrey, the most complete stand-off in Wales, Stephen Jones, of Llanelli, broke a thumb during a club match against Cardiff and was immediately ruled out of the first two matches of the Six Nations' Championship.

With Neil Jenkins, the old maestro from Pontypridd, also out of the running through injury, Jones' misfortune was felt as keenly by the Welsh hierarchy as by the player himself.

"It's disappointing to lose a player of Stephen's calibre and it is a blow to our preparations," said Steve Hansen, the coach, as he mulled over his remaining options for the awkward match against Italy in Rome on Saturday week. "However, we have enough cover within the squad. I consider it unnecessary to call on anyone else at this stage."

Hansen clearly intends to run Iestyn Harris, the former Great Britain rugby league international, against the Azzurri. The only other outside-half in the 31-man party named on Monday is the uncapped Ceri Sweeney, a colleague of Jenkins' at Sardis Road.

Harris has had his moments in the union game, but they have been few and far between in Test rugby, to which he was introduced with indecent haste last season. If Wales looked weak before the calamity suffered by Jones, they look seriously fragile now.

Jones will also miss Wales' second match, against England at the Millennium Stadium on 22 February, but estimates that he might be out until the end of March appear exaggerated.

Jones, a 25-year-old with 25 caps, regained the fabled Red Dragon No 10 shirt from Harris after Argentina's victory in Cardiff in November 2001, and featured strongly in two brave Welsh performances against the Springboks in South Africa last summer.

Talking of Springboks, the London Irish player-coach, Brendan Venter, will leave the club at the end of the season and return to Cape Town, where he has a medical practice.

The 33-year-old centre, who won 17 caps between 1994 and 1999, is credited with guiding the Exiles to their unprecedented heights of last season, when they won the Powergen Cup, made the semi-finals of the Parker Pen Shield and finished fourth in the Zurich Premiership. "I've had a great innings, but my time has come," Venter said.

Venter will not consider a full-time rugby role in South Africa, but may coach on a part-time basis.