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Ospreys talisman Jones comes into the back row with his more than able stand-in in Scotland, Scarlet Dafydd Jones, reverting to the bench and debutant Bradley Davies the player to miss out.
IRB world player of the year Shane Williams is selected on the wing, but missed training today due to an ankle injury and will be re-assessed tomorrow after further rest. If Williams doesn’t make it through his fitness test Scarlet Mark Jones will be promoted from outside the 22 straight into the starting line-up after recovering from his appendix operation.
Another possible change could come in the back row after No8 Andy Powell pulled up in training this morning with a tightening in his calf, but that injury needs time to settle before it can be properly assessed.
Centre Gavin Henson had not sufficiently recovered from his calf strain to be made available for selection.
“The fixture is a bit of a reversal from last year, it just shows that a lot of things can change in 12 months, but there is also a lesson there in that we were not tipped to win at Twickenham but we did and it sparked our season,” said Gatland.
“We will need to play better all around the park than we did last week if we are to beat England, they are a side with a vast amount of experience and they will respond well to having their backs to the wall.
“We have reached fourth place in the IRB World Rankings and our challenge now is to stay there and maintain consistency of performance.”
Wales: Lee Byrne; Leigh Halfpenny, Tom Shanklin, Jamie Roberts, Shane Williams; Stephen Jones, Michael Phillips; Gethin Jenkins, Matthew Rees, Adam Jones, Ian Gough, Alun-Wyn Jones, Ryan Jones (captain), Martyn Williams, Andy Powell
Replacements: Huw Bennett, John Yapp, Luke Charteris, Dafydd Jones, Dwayne Peel, James Hook, Andrew Bishop
