Jones happy with Henson heroics

Wales fly-half Stephen Jones admitted he was happy to hand Gavin Henson responsibility for taking the match-winning kick against England.

Jones had missed three earlier shots at goal when Wales, 9-8 down, were awarded a long-range penalty with four minutes left in Cardiff. "I knew the percentages of Gavin reaching it were far higher than me," Jones said. "When he said he wanted it, there were no problems." Jones had seen a long-range effort fall a whisker under the crossbar on the hour, before Charlie Hodgson put England in front with 10 minutes left. "I looked at where it was and I knew I was going to struggle to make it," Jones added. "I said to Gareth (Thomas, the Wales captain) 'This is touch and go.' It was out of my range and obviously Gavin is phenomenal when it comes to distance. He was confident and fancied it. "There were no questions that he'd miss it the way he was playing. He had a superb game." Jones was happy to hail Henson's heroic contribution to Wales' first win over England in Cardiff since 1993. "Physically he's a specimen: he's a balanced player, he glides when he runs and obviously he's got a great kicking game as well," Jones said.

"His defence was superb, he made some great hits and he had a great game. "I'm glad he's Welsh." Victory over England for the first time since 1999 will no doubt fuel expectations of what Wales might achieve in this year's Six Nations. But they now face three away fixtures in Italy, France and Scotland before completing their campaign against Ireland in Cardiff. "People all over the world want to see Wales back at the top table of world rugby," said a proud coach Mike Ruddock. "But we are not there yet. The next step is finding the consistency to get further wins. "We have to travel this week and we can't afford to get too giddy about this result. "We have got to be professional and keep focused on facing Italy."

None more so than Henson, who can now expect to have the same sort of spotlight thrust upon him as the likes of Jonny Wilkinson and Brian O'Driscoll. The confident 23-year-old is undaunted by the prospect of dealing with such weighty expectations however. "I'm the sort of player who likes pressure on me," he said. "It makes me more concentrated and I think I perform better under more pressure. "I set a high standard against England and I've got to back it up next week. "Two years ago when we played Italy I wasn't involved and we lost, so we've got to put that right next week."
