New boy Jones eager to 'get things sorted'

ROOKIE England flanker Chris Jones might be a new kid on the block but he knows that tomorrow's RBS 6 Nations clash against Wales is all about raising standards.

Jones, comfortably the most inexperienced member of England's starting XV, will win only his fourth cap at Twickenham this weekend.

Yet there can be no honeymoon period for the 23-year-old Sale Sharks forward, who finds himself in an England team suddenly with everything to prove.

England, without their World Cup general Martin Johnson or World Cup final match-winner Jonny Wilkinson, got things horribly wrong when Ireland came calling 12 days ago.

And if Wales can inflict fresh agony tomorrow, then England will suffer their first Twickenham back-to-back Test defeats for 20 years.

It is a prospect - albeit remote, given Wales' dismal Twickenham record over the past 16 years - that the world champions or their coach Sir Clive Woodward dare not contemplate.

"There is a determination to get things sorted for the weekend," said 6ft 6in Jones, who lines up in England's back row alongside Richard Hill and captain Lawrence Dallaglio.

"We want to get out and put it right. We've concentrated this week on improving in every area by one or two per cent, and to start meeting the standards that we set for ourselves again.

"We didn't perform as well as we wanted to against Ireland, so we want to get out there and put in a good performance.

"It's going to be physical in the forwards against Wales - they've got some tough nuts in there - and looking at the back line, they've got some fantastic players, so it will be an interesting game."

England have put in the hard yards during training this week, and Woodward conceded: "There is a huge amount of work to be done.

"It's good to be back with the team - we were obviously very disappointed about the Ireland game.

"We had a tremendous home record over the past four and a half years.

"So many bad things went into that game and we've just got to accept that we lost a game of rugby and understand fully why we lost. We are busy putting it right."

TEAMS. England versus Wales, RBS 6 Nations Championship, Twickenham, tomorrow, 4pm. ENGLAND: J Robinson (Sale); J Lewsey (Wasps), W Greenwood (Harlequins), M Tindall (Bath), B Cohen (Northampton); P Grayson (Northampton), M Dawson (Northampton); T Woodman (Gloucester), S Thompson (Northampton), P Vickery (Gloucester), D Grewcock (Bath), B Kay (Leicester), C Jones (Sale Sharks), R Hill (Saracens), L Dallaglio (Wasps, capt). Replacements: M Regan (Leeds), J White (Leicester), S Borthwick (Bath), J Worsley (Wasps), A Gomarsall (Gloucester), M Catt (Bath), J Simpson-Daniel (Gloucester). WALES: G Thomas (Celtic Warriors); R Williams (Cardiff Blues), M Taylor (Llanelli Scarlets), I Harris (Blues), S Williams (Neath-Swansea Ospreys); S Jones (Scarlets), G Cooper (Warriors); Duncan Jones (Ospreys), R McBryde (Scarlets), G Jenkins (Warriors), B Cockbain (Warriors), M Owen (Gwent Dragons), J Thomas (Ospreys), C Charvis (Tarbes, capt), Dafydd Jones (Scarlets). Replacements: M Davies (Warriors), B Evans (Blues), G Llewellyn (Ospreys), M Williams (Blues), D Peel (Scarlets), C Sweeney (Warriors), T Shanklin (Blues).