Six Nations 2011: Ryan Jones set to start for Wales against Ireland

Ryan Jones will win his 50th Wales cap against Ireland in Cardiff on Saturday if he recovers from the recurrence of a calf injury. The No8's international future was in doubt three months ago after he was replaced as captain by Matthew Rees, but he has re-established himself as one of the side's mainstays. The Wales coach, Warren Gatland, announced his side 48 hours early at the request of his players. Jones has not trained this week and Wales have named three forwards on the bench who will cover two positions in the back five, raising the prospect that one of them, probably Andy Powell, will replace Jones in the starting line-up. "The players wanted to know the team as early as possible, and while in the past we have delayed announcing it, we have not had the co-operation from our media and the line-up has been leaked in advance," said Gatland. "We decided that if we were to tell the players, we would announce it publicly straight away to avoid it coming out. "We have bracketed three players on the bench because Ryan has a tight calf and has not trained today while Jonathan Thomas has a haematoma on his leg. We hope they will be fit, but we are taking precautions." Gatland has made three changes, one positional, from the side that started in Rome in the last round. Leigh Halfpenny replaces Morgan Stoddart on the right wing, not least because of his ability to kick goals from inside his own half, Jonathan Davies returns to the midfield after recovering from a hamstring strain and James Hook moves from centre to fly-half in place of Stephen Jones. Ireland, who have lost in Cardiff only once since 1983, will be unchanged from the side that started at Murrayfield. Ronan O'Gara remains at No10 with Jonathan Sexton on the bench, a reverse of Wales's preference in the position for the threat of Hook with the ball in hand rather than the controlling influence of Jones. "We want to give James another opportunity at 10," said Gatland. "He provides a running threat and we will be looking for him to show he can control the game as well and help us play in the right areas. We hope we are allowed the opportunity to get quick ball at the breakdown and play some attacking rugby and we will be talking to the referee [Jonathan Kaplan] to get his co-operation in that area. We would like the roof to be closed, but that could potentially be an issue. "We have to build on our last two games, which we have won after the opening day loss to England. I was astounded at the negative criticism after that game which said that England were brilliant and we were crap. There was only seven points between the teams and it was a good, hard and old-fashioned Test match with nothing between the sides." Hook, whose half-back partner, Mike Phillips, will be winning his 50th cap, warned that Ireland would pose a greater threat than Scotland and Italy and since winning the grand slam in 2008, Wales have not beaten Ireland or France, their final opponents. "It will be totally different to the last two games on Saturday," he said. "Scotland were quite poor and Ireland have so much experience. Our confidence is high after two victories and I am just glad to be back at outside-half. You get your hands on the ball there much more often than you do in the centre or at full-back and it gives you the opportunity to wait for the gap rather than try to force things." Like Wales, Ireland have won in Scotland and Italy and lost narrowly at home, to France. "Both sides have had mixed form," said the Ireland captain, Brian O'Driscoll. "Everyone is aware that if both sides click they are capable of playing decent rugby. We are not far away and I don't think there is a favourite on Saturday."