Charvis' future unclear

The future of Colin Charvis as Wales captain is unclear.

The 2001 British Lion led his side to a 50-44 defeat by Argentina in Tucuman.

But it appears the 31-year-old Newcastle flanker’s dispute over not being paid for media work has been brought to an end, albeit with a decision as to his future captaincy prospects yet to be announced by the Welsh Rugby Union.

After a week in which Charvis refused to conduct media interviews in the build-up to Wales’ first tour Test, Charvis appeared before journalists and broadcaster in the wake of this defeat.

Charvis’ earlier stance caused a huge furore in his homeland where famous former captains Mervyn Davies called for the player to be sent packing from the Wales camp.

But Charvis believes form rather than off-field issues will determine whether or not coach Mike Ruddock will continue to persevere with the back-row forward as Wales’ skipper.

Charvis said: “I don’t think there’s ever been a personal situation with me within the camp.

“I have been vilified by the Welsh media but at least this time I have not been subject of a poll comparing me with Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden.

Whether I keep the captaincy is up to Mike. He has to analyse how I played and after that it’s Mike’s choice.

“If Mike feels I didn’t come up to scratch someone else will take over.”

Charvis was among several villains highlighted by Ruddock for having helped Argentina take the initiative after what had been a promising start for Wales.

Charvis was sin-binned in the 31st minute and Ruddock also pinpointed rash moments by scrum-half Dwayne Peel and a loose kick by fly-half Ceri Sweeney.

Ruddock said: “We made too many mistakes and our defence let us down at times.

“We will have to take a look at the video tape, analyse where we went wrong and work on the mistakes with great enthusiasm – which is what we will do.

“Colin was sin-binned and Argentina scored a try straight after that. And in the first 10 minutes of the second half our defence let us down.”

However Ruddock was pleased with the Welsh fight-back which saw them almost snatch the game at the death – Wales were 38-9 down early in the second half and fought back valiantly.

He continued: “I thought our scrum went very well which was a big bonus and we showed a lot of character and skill to come back at the end of the game.

“That is very pleasing and we ave a lot to build on.”

Charvis held his hand up over the sin-binning, admitting it had caused a big problem for his side.

The skipper added: “We have to look at our mistakes and address them.

“I made one and got sin-binned but there were other problems that we will also have to look at before we face the Pumas in Buenos Aires next Saturday.”