Luke Charteris is one of international rugby’s longest‑serving players but in a season when he turns 35, and at a time when playing careers are getting shorter because of the physical demands of the sport, retirement is far from the Wales second row’s thoughts.
Charteris was first capped in 2004, two years after Juan-Martín Hernández, Sergio Parisse and Gethin Jenkins and the same year as Rory Best, and has won 74 caps. Tall (he is 6ft 9in) and lithe, he looks pretty much now as he did when he made his first appearance in senior rugby, for Newport in 2002, and in the last year of his contract with Bath he is looking to secure an extension.
“I tried counting my pre-seasons the other day and stopped when I reached 16 because it was scary,” he says. “I am still enjoying my rugby and would like to carry on. I was injured at the end of last season and while it was disappointing to miss Wales’s summer tour, it allowed me to have a proper pre-season for the first time in a long while and I am feeling good. I was playing before the regions were formed in Wales [in 2003]. It is probably not a good sign as there are not many around now who can say that.”
Charteris supplies essential experience in a generally young Bath squad. He packs down in the second row at Wasps on Sunday alongside England’s Charlie Ewels, a player 12 years his junior, as the West Country club look to recover momentum after following up victories in the opening two rounds with defeats at Northampton and, more surprisingly, at home to Newcastle last weekend when, after scoring 32 unanswered points having trailed 19-0, they succumbed to two late tries.
“The defeat to Newcastle was frustrating because it was almost as if we lost the game twice,” says Charteris. “It showed that you cannot afford to give anyone in the Premiership a 19-point start. We spent a lot of energy getting back into the game and played good rugby but failed to close it out. It was not a case of thinking we had the game won. The right things were being said on the pitch but we did not quite have enough energy left and individual errors cost us.”
Bath started the campaign with only their second Premiership victory at Leicester, 14 years after the first one. After defeating Saracens at home, they lost at Northampton, another ground in the east Midlands where success has been elusive in the league with just two wins in 20 years, and Wasps have lost at the Ricoh Arena only once in the last 20 months, to Harlequins two weekends ago. Bath’s form on the road cost them a place in the play-offs last season: they won three of the first four away but lost the last seven.
“A difference about the Premiership now is that teams travel with confidence,” says Charteris. “One of our targets this season is to do better when we are playing away from the Recreation Ground and we travelled a lot in pre-season. Our form on the road last season was not good enough and you have to be able to play well in different environments.
“We know how tough it is to win at Wasps but we go there confident that we can win and make things look a lot better again. Both teams like to play and it should be another exciting game.”
The time of year is approaching when the season in Europe begins to fragment. The European competitions start in October; Bath’s first match back in the Champions Cup is at home to Benetton on 14 October and their second is the following Friday in Llanelli against the Scarlets, who won last season’s Pro12. Then clubs lose their international players for a month of autumn internationals.
“Missing out on the Champions Cup last season was disappointing and having qualified there is no point in not looking to do well,” says Charteris. “We are determined to make the most of it and get out of the group. You are then three matches away and playing in those big games is what it is all about. Qualifying for the knockout stages will be demanding with Toulon and the Scarlets, who are looking really good, in our pool, but we will be going for it and there will be some good contests.”
Charteris started three of Wales’s autumn internationals last season but was a replacement for most of the Six Nations. He is used to jostling for a place in the second row with Alun Wyn Jones, Jake Ball and Bradley Davies, but four different players appeared at lock in the summer Tests against Tonga and Samoa, making selection for the four matches in November and December far from clearcut.
“I hope to be involved,” says Charteris. “Some young players took their chance in the summer and have started the season well so it will be tough but we will see when the squad is named. New Zealand is the big game of the autumn and with a number of Wales coaches and players on the Lions trip there, they will have learned a lot. The All Blacks have cracked on again in the Rugby Championship and are looking quality, but what happened in the summer should stand us in good stead.
“In the last few years the European teams have improved, England and Ireland have done well in the last few autumns and Wales have done better. Five or six years ago there was a pretty big divide between north and south, but the gap is closing.
“New Zealand are still the No1 but there is not much between the rest. We are looking for a big season. A number of the boys did well on the Lions tour and they will be confident and rested. I just want to be a part of it.”
