Harris could be a one match wonder

Wales are so keen to pick Iestyn Harris next month that he may become the first one-match wonder to play for his country. The convert from rugby league is being lined up to face Argentina on November 10 even if, by then, he has played only one senior game for Cardiff. At the very most he will have played two, the home and away European Cup-ties against Glasgow.

England winger Jason Robinson took only nine matches to bridge the gulf from league to union and even then he was eased in via the bench. If Robinson's rise was meteoric, then Harris would make the English Lion look a slouch by comparison.

While England took care to make sure that Robinson walked before he ran, Wales are in such dire straits in more than one position behind the scrum that they have no alternative but to throw Harris in at the deep end. The question is not when but where - stand off or full back?

If it turns out to be the former, then he will become the first player to switch straight from league to the complexities of running an international union team from fly half.

Harris trained with the Welsh Six Nations squad yesterday while awaiting specialist clearance to start playing within the next fortnight after breaking three bones in his wrist.

Apart from their search for a full back and a lasting alternative to Neil Jenkins at No.10, Wales have a commercial reason for picking Harris sooner rather than later. The bean-counters at the Welsh Rugby Union trust that Harris would excite enough interest to pay back more than half of the £750,000 transfer fee forked out to prise him from Leeds. The WRU and Cardiff each paid half that fee and will also split the wage bill that brings the total cost of his four-year contract to £1.5million. For the immediate job at hand, trying to beat Ireland in Cardiff on Saturday for the first time since 1983,Wales stick with Kevin Morgan at full back, where they have no alternative, and Stephen Jones at fly half, where they do, albeit the untested Gavin Henson. The Swansea teenager is on the bench, with Jones's switch from inside centre giving a first start to 21-year-old Jamie Robinson after two caps as a substitute in Japan last summer.

WALES (v Ireland): K Morgan; D James, J Robinson, A Bateman, S Williams; S Jones, R Howley; I Thomas, R McBryde, D Young (capt); C Wyatt, A Moore; C Charvis, G Lewis, B Sinkinson. Substitutes: B Williams, C Anthony, C Quinnell, G Thomas, G Cooper or D Peel, G Henson, R Williams.