WALES are giving flanker Dan Lydiate until the very last minute to prove his fitness so that they can protect the balance of their much-vaunted back row in Sunday’s Six Nations opener in Dublin.

The blindside is struggling to overcome the injury to his right ankle that he suffered in Newport Gwent Dragons’ Amlin Challenge Cup win against Cavalieri Prato 11 days ago.

Head coach Warren Gatland was set to name Wales’ side for the clash with Ireland this lunchtime.

That announcement has been pushed back until Friday because of fitness fears over Lydiate, fly-half Rhys Priestland and centre Jamie Roberts (both knee), with assistant coach Rob Howley describing the next 48 hours as “critical.”

But the former scrum-half believes it is worth waiting to see if the 20-times capped Dragons star can join forces with Toby Faletau and skipper Sam Warburton in the back row.

“When you have a someone that played such a huge role in the World Cup as Dan did then it’s important to give him as long as possible,” he said.

“It’s also good in terms of the psyche of the other players because the balance of the back row is superb and up right there with New Zealand and Ireland’s.

“There is a good mix in terms of the hard graft of Dan, a mongrel seven in Sam who gets his hands dirty and the big ball carrying of Toby.

“Dan is a massive influence on this team and the biggest compliment that I can pay him is that he is similar to (England World Cup winner) Richard Hill.

“You should never really hear about a six but Dan is destructive, very strong, rarely misses a tackle and works incredibly hard.

“It’s also great that Toby and Dan know each other well and it’s Dan’s hard graft that allows Toby to be given a free role.”

Should Lydiate, who played a limited part in last week’s training camp in Poland, not get the green light then Wales are likely to turn to former skipper Ryan Jones in the back row.

James Hook is favourite to step in for Priestland while uncapped Ospreys centre Ashley Beck could be a shock replacement for Roberts.

“Ashley was very impressive in Poland,” said Howley.

“He has a great skill set and great ability.

“He has a knack of making line breaks for the Ospreys and putting players into space, and he did well in the two Heineken Cup games against Saracens last month in attack and defence.

“If Jamie does not make it we have quality players to come into the mix and we would look at combinations.

“I would have no qualms about playing Ashley because he has played well in the Heineken Cup, which is a measure of a player’s quality.”