A tour of Europe by the southern hemisphere superpowers often generates talk of the gap between north and south, but with this month’s score 3-2 in favour of the four home unions the Wales lock Luke Charteris believes the debate has changed.
“There are gaps in the southern hemisphere,” the Bath second-row said. “New Zealand are significantly ahead of South Africa and Australia and the task for the rest of the world is to catch them up. Ireland have shown that beating New Zealand is doable and the more you play these teams, the more confident and better you get.”
As well as Ireland’s victory against the All Blacks in Chicago, England have beaten South Africa and Wales have overcome Argentina. Australia are so far unbeaten on their five-match tour, winning handsomely in Cardiff before sneaking home against Scotland.
“It is hard to gauge because teams are at different points in the season,” Charteris said. “I don’t think you can ever say what any gap between north and south is because it depends who is playing each other.
“England have had a big year, following up their grand slam with a series win in Australia and a good victory over South Africa. Speaking to their players at Bath, they are clearly enjoying being part of the national set-up and the challenge for Wales is to get as good a result against South Africa next week.”
Wales face Japan in Cardiff on Saturday and Charteris feels one gap that is closing is between the tier-one nations and tier two. The last time Wales played Japan they lost in Tokyo, three years ago. The side were weakened by Lions call-ups, but included Liam Williams at full-back and Dan Biggar at outside-half.
“Teams like Japan, Romania and Georgia are closing the gap between tier one and two,” Charteris said. “It is definitely getting smaller. Japan played well during the World Cup and as a squad, we watched their victory over South Africa in the team room, cheering them on. It is good to see so-called establishment teams coming unstuck and the beauty of the World Cup is that you face teams you do not meet very often.
“Scotland were lucky to get Japan on a short turnaround otherwise that game would have been more interesting. We know it will be tough on Saturday even though they have changed since the World Cup with a new coaching team and the next generation of players. They like to play a high-tempo game and will be different to sides we are used to facing.”
Wales name their side on Thursday and with their interim head coach Rob Howley considering resting his thirtysomething players, one selection debate will be whether to award a first cap to the 18-year-old Ospreys wing Keelan Giles, who was called into the squad last week.
