Charvis recall set to work like a charm

WALES veteran, Colin Charvis, has revealed he has been as much of a surprise off the field at the Newport Gwent Dragons as on it, where his form has earned him a recall from national coach, Gareth Jenkins, ahead of the RBS Six Nations Championship.

The 84-times capped 2001 Lion was written off from further Test honours in many quarters after failing to make last summer’s Wales tour to Argentina and being omitted from their November games against Australia, Canada, Pacific Islands and New Zealand.

In the meantime, he was forced into “semi-retirement” during the off-season when it seemed he might not secure a professional contract after parting company with Newcastle.

But the Dragons finally stepped in, and since regaining fitness the ex-Wales skipper’s form has been a revelation. He has also earned new friends off the field with a personal charm that he says few at Rodney Parade had expected him to possess.

Charvis said: “My reputation — thanks to the media — for being a difficult person went ahead of me. Then to go to the Dragons and actually be an amiable guy surprised a lot of supporters and it surprised some of the players as well because of the things they’d heard about me.

“I’m just the same as the other guys. I just roll up my sleeves and go to work every morning and see what we can achieve on the weekend. Maybe people were surprised I wasn’t the pain in the proverbial most people thought I was going to be.”

However, Charvis remains a proverbial pain to opponents in the contact area and he puts that down to having enough experience to overcome the physical deficiencies that come with being 34 years old.

He said: “Who knows whether I’ll play one or five games in the Six Nations? You’ve just got to look forward to the next team you’re selected in. I set a lot of goals for this season when I joined the Dragons and what I wanted to achieve. Getting myself back to fitness and playing well for them was the first thing.

“It took a while and a lot of us put the work in for the recognition we’ve had. The supporters and coaches seem very happy with the way things are going and one of my goals was to get back into the Welsh squad, and I’ve done that.

“So it’s now just a case of waiting to see whether I can get selected for a Six Nations game.

“You’ve just got to work hard at your fitness. Some players have enforced time off through injury and mine was, if you want to call it that, a semi-retirement.

“But as a sportsman you don’t just sit on a beach for three months. You keep yourself in reasonable condition and if you work well with your dietician and fitness coaches, and if you’ve missed a pre-season, it’s no big deal. You’ve just got to work a bit harder to get yourself back up to speed. We’ll see whether I’ve got the fitness levels for modern international rugby if I get picked.”