“In recent history we know we haven’t started well in this Championship,” said Charvis. “However, if you think about it, until this summer no team from the Northern Hemisphere had won the Rugby World Cup. Statistics didn’t stop England and we aren’t going to let them get in our way either.”
Wales could read the stats a different way, that last opening home win was a 29-6 victory over Scotland and the last opening win was a 34-19 result at Murrayfield in 1997. Just for good measure, the last opening home win before Scotland was against England, who also visit the Millennium Stadium this year, when Ieuan Evans scored the only try to beat the auld enemy 10-9.
You could say this bodes well, but Charvis is set to follow his coach’s lead, concentrate on performance and let the wins come.
“We know we performed well at the Rugby World Cup and we want to maintain that, but we equally know that the RBS Six Nations is a different competition,” he said. “We have different referees and other sides will know a little more about us now.
“The coaches will come up with new patterns of play and we are going to have to bring something special out of the bag to start of with a win against Scotland, as they will have done their homework on us.
“It goes without saying that England will be strong, no matter who they put out on the field. You don’t win a Rugby World Cup without strength in depth in your squad. Ireland have the same standard of high quality throughout their squad and France are always a force.
“Everyone will be desperate to do well and Italy will remember their victory over us in last season’s Championship and that they have point to prove after the Rugby World Cup.
“My aim is obviously to win every match, but beyond that we need to raise the bar as a team, maintain a high standard of performance and then the wins will look after themselves.”
Charvis has grown into the Captaincy role for Wales and is looking forward to the new challenge of the RBS Six Nations. ‘Lost in France’ as he is, his first aim for the season was to get himself into Coach Steve Hansen’s squad.
“Everyone refers to the Welsh media as a bit of a gold fish bowl and it is certainly a relief to be out of the focus of attention and be able to concentrate on rugby,” he added. “Rugby in France was never going to compare to the Rugby World Cup or even Heineken Cup rugby.
“Captaining Wales at the Rugby World Cup was the major achievement of my career so far, but for this RBS Six Nations it was just important for me just to concentrate on getting into the squad and I didn’t really think about the Captaincy.
“I’ve been playing less intense level of rugby and I needed to make sure I got my fitness and conditioning right and ensure I could represent my country.
“The standard is similar to the first division in Wales, we are a team that doesn’t travel too well, but we would back ourselves at home, say, against one of the Premiership Welsh clubs before the intervention of regional rugby.”
