The Dragons have blocked their captain Colin Charvis from joining Wales’ pre-South Africa tour training camp.

Wales coach Warren Gatland sent for the veteran back-row after the injury withdrawals of Martyn Williams, Alix Popham and Robin Sowden-Taylor.

Dragons coach Paul Turner confirmed: “We had a message asking if we would release Colin with a view to going on tour but I couldn’t, he’s our captain.”

But flanker Charvis could link up with Wales once the Dragons’ season is over.

The 35-year-old forward will lead the Dragons for Tuesday’s Magners League Welsh derby against the Ospreys at Rodney Parade before the region welcome champions Leinster on Friday.

Gatland requested Charvis’ release for Wales’ training camp in Ireland on Sunday but Turner refused.

“It was a difficult decision to make,” Turner told BBC Sport Wales. “We try to produce regional players to play for our country. That is my job as well as trying to drive this region forward and get results.

“We released Andy Williams and Rhys Thomas to Wales last week, but Colin is the captain here and it’s an important week for us.

“I spoke to Wales team manager Alan Phillips and they understood - or I hope they understood - and Colin can certainly be available to tour South Africa.

“He’s been great for us, but it’s only been two months since Wales informed him they were looking at younger players and I wouldn’t have thought a lot has changed.

“But obviously Wales have injuries and Colin’s experience and wherewithal would be vital in South Africa, but we’ll have to wait and see.”

Charvis is Wales’ most capped forward, with 94 Tests, and the leading try-scoring forward in international rugby, with 22.

The Dragons faced the Ospreys on Tuesday night and Leinster on Friday night, both at home.

Turner’s side need one more point to be sure of finishing above Connacht and securing a Heineken Cup place.

Warren Gatland believes veteran flanker Martyn Williams can play for Wales at the next World Cup in 2011.

The 32-year-old quit Test rugby after the 2007 World Cup but returned to the fold to help Wales win the Grand Slam.

Williams, capped 81 times, will be 36 by the time of the World Cup in New Zealand, but the Wales coach said: “I don’t think age should be a barrier.

“His form is outstanding and if we look after him well enough I think we can get him through to the 2011 World Cup.”

A telephone call from Gatland, who took over from Gareth Jenkins as national coach after Wales were knocked out of the World Cup in France by Fiji, persuaded Williams to make an international retirement U-turn.

The Cardiff Blues flanker later admitted his decision to retire was “rash” and went on to play a key role as Wales ended this season’s Six Nations undefeated.

“It will be about careful management of him by ourselves and the Blues over that period,” added Gatland. “During that period another young No 7, or more than one, will come through and put him under pressure.

“Players of 34 or 35 can still have a big contribution. We saw that in 2003 and last year’s World Cup when a number of teams had players in their 30s.”

Such has been Williams’ form that the back-rower is expected to tour with the British and Irish Lions for the third time.

And Gatland, who has been linked with the job of coaching the Lions, refused to rule out playing some sort of role on next year’s tour of South Africa.

“I don’t think my name has been put forward and that’s understandable. You’ve got to respect the WRU wanting to protect their interests,” said the New Zealander.

“I fully appreciate they need to do that by making sure I do the best job I can for Welsh rugby.

“I’ve only been in the job for one year and it’s about making sure my sole responsibility is on Wales.

“My name hasn’t been put forward by Wales, but that doesn’t mean there won’t be some involvement in the future.”

Gatland said Wales captain Ryan Jones was one of the leading candidates to lead the Lions during their six-week trip, which starts against a Highveld XV in Rustenburg on 30 May.

“Ryan would have to be one of the players you’d have to consider among the front-runners to be a Lions captain, but there’s a lot of water to go under the bridge between now and the tour.

“That’s about us continuing the challenge of being successful and Ryan staying fit.

“You often find a Lions captain tends to be from a side that’s playing with confidence and has been successful during a Six Nations, and that’s the challenge for Ryan as an individual to keep his form as a player and make sure we have a successful campaign.”

The first game of Wales’ two-Test summer tour of world champions South Africa will be in Bloemfontein.
 
The venue for the 7 June clash was in doubt due to work at Vodacom Park ahead of the 2010 football World Cup.

The tour concludes the next Saturday at Loftus Versfeld, Pretoria, with both matches to kick-off at 1300 BST.

“We’ll be testing ourselves against the world champions at probably the ideal time for our own development,” said Wales coach Warren Gatland.
Gatland will be defending a 100% record in charge, having led Wales to the Grand Slam after taking over in December.

He has promised to take his strongest available side to South Africa, where the tour is also being talked up.

Springbok legend Naas Botha believes the series promises to be among the best of the last 10 years, contrasting with recent summer tours from northern hemisphere countries who have sent weakened squads south of the equator.

Wales have beaten the Springboks just once in their history, and have never triumphed on South African soil.

Moreover, Wales have not beaten one of the Tri-Nations sides on their home turf since overcoming Australia in 1969, a 1987 win over the Wallabies having been played in New Zealand.

“Warren has said openly he wants Wales to be in the top five of the International Rugby Board world rankings by the time his contract expires in four years’ time,” said Welsh Rugby Union group chief executive Roger Lewis.

“We currently lie in sixth position and it is only by pitting ourselves against the best teams world rugby has to offer that we will be able to achieve our aims.

“The Welsh rugby team will never shy away from the big challenges.

“There could have been no better tour for us this summer than to visit the home of the world champions, play in two high intensity Test matches, and gain a true measure of our progress.”
 

Wales’ Grand Slam-winning winger Shane Williams has won the RBS Six Nations player of the tournament award.

Williams’s six tries inspired Wales to their second clean sweep in four years as the Ospreys ace scored decisive tries in three of Wales’ five wins.

His score against France was the 41st try of his international career, breaking Gareth Thomas’s Welsh record.

“Being named Player of the Six Nations is a fantastic end to what has been a phenomenal week,” he said.

Williams was the clear winner of the prestigious accolade as the 31-year-old earned 55% of the 19,000 votes cast on the RBS Six Nations website. 

Italian number eight Sergio Parisse was ranked second with 14% of the vote, while Wales’ Grand Slam-winning captain Ryan Jones finished third.

“This year’s Six Nations has been a special Championship for me and for all the boys for lots of reasons,” said Williams.

“It is beyond our wildest dreams and this is just the icing on the cake.

“It is an even greater honour to know that it came from a combination of former players’ nominations and fans’ votes, whose support throughout this year’s Championship has been sensational.”

Williams’s pivotal try against France in the Grand Slam clincher at the Millennium Stadium on Saturday equalled Will Greenwood’s championship record set in 2001.

“To be up with the greats in Welsh rugby as the highest try-scorer is incredible,” said the twinkle-toed winger who boasts an incredible strike-rate of 41 tries in just 56 Wales caps.

“But it isn’t about that, it is about winning the Grand Slam.”

One of the Six Nation’s enduring images was of Wales’ defence guru Shaun Edwards shouting “wow, what a player” as Williams surged past four Italian defenders to score in their record 47-8 rout.

“If any team are ever going to be successful you need three or four players who can do something special and change a match,” said Wales coach Warren Gatland.

“Shane can do that. He can beat three defenders on his own and it is brilliant for us to have him in the squad.

“What has impressed me about Shane Williams is that I can’t remember him making a mistake in this tournament.

“If I had watched him in the past I would have been critical that the brilliant things he did were followed by an error.

“I can’t remember him doing that this tournament.

 ”He loves to get his hands on the ball and he not only excites the fans but he excites the coaches as well.

“When he gets the ball you feel like something special is going to happen.”

Welsh wing great Gerald Davies added: “What is great about him is that he assesses the moment to perfection.

“If he needs to side-step, then he will, if he needs to go on the outside of his man, he will, if he needs to take the straight line, he will and I think that that means that his head is always in charge of his legs.

“For all the prejudices over the last few years that it has become the game for the big man, the powerful man, the man of muscle and bone, here’s Shane Williams proving that it is not.

“I think that that is the great thing about Shane Williams is that he has disproved the prejudices that have grown up over recent years.”

Wales completed their transformation from World Cup flops to secure their second Grand Slam in four years and send the nation into raptures.

An early 9-3 lead was whittled away by France after Gavin Henson’s sin-binning on the stroke of half-time.

But Shane Williams got the crucial score on 60 minutes, becoming Wales’ all-time top try scorer in the process. Stephen Jones’s steady hand from the bench helped them home, with the superb Martyn Williams adding a second try.
France entered the game having not lost a championship game in Cardiff since 1996 and needing a 19-point win to steal the RBS Six Nations title from Wales.

But with the packed crowd brewing the enclosed Millennium Stadium into a fervent cauldron of expectation, Wales were spurred into early action.

From turnover ball in midfield, James Hook created space for Mark Jones down the right with a magical sleight of hand.

A try was begging, but Jones could not find Lee Byrne on his inside shoulder and the home side had to be content with an opening penalty from Hook.

Woeful French kicking - with David Skrela the main culprit - and direct midfield running from Tom Shanklin and Henson increased the pressure, but Hook missed a tricky penalty chance.

The fly-half made amends with an 18th-minute kick, cancelled out by a Jean-Baptiste Elissalde penalty following Ryan Jones’s untidy work at the restart.

The gift-giving from restarts continued, Thierry Dusautoir’s error allowing Hook to ease the Wales lead back out to 9-3 with his third penalty.

Les Bleus finally began to find a foothold in the Wales half, until a superb on-the-floor steal from man-of-the-match Martyn Williams relieved some of the pressure.

Wales’ blitz defence finally showed flaws in the final play of the half, and - with France already playing a penalty advantage - Henson’s head-high tackle on Fulgence Ouedraogo led to a yellow card for the centre.

Elissalde slotted the final kick of the half to cut the gap to three points, Hook missing an opportunity to cancel that out after the break when Shane Williams pinned the counter-attacking Vincent Clerc deep in his own 22.

Then Elissalde made no mistake with his third penalty to level the scores, the visitors scoring six points in Henson’s absence.

Ian Gough was winning his 50th cap for Wales, and he was joined on that landmark by Duncan Jones who temporarily stepped off the bench following a head injury to Gethin Jenkins.

Wales coach Warren Gatland decide to replace Hook at fly-half, Stephen Jones coming off the bench along with hooker Matthew Rees for Huw Bennett.

It was a France mistake that hurt the visitors, though, Les Bleus spilling the ball 40 yards from their own line.

Shane Williams pounced, hacking through and showing composure to ground for the try after the ball bounced off the post, taking him clear of Clerc as the 2008 tournament’s leading try scorer, and ahead of Gareth Thomas on 41 in Wales’ all-time list.

France coach Marc Lievremont changed his half-backs, but it was Stephen Jones who got the next score, a penalty stretching the lead to 19-9.

The visitors were pushed off an attacking five-metre scrum by the Welsh eight, but any thought that the game was won was dispelled by Dimitri Yachvili’s 71st-minute penalty.

Stephen Jones immediately replied with a long-range goal of his own to restore the comfort zone.
Mark Jones was narrowly denied the chance of immortality, breaking from his own line and embarking on a dazzling run only to be hauled down inches short of a memorable score.

It was left to Martyn Williams to crown the day, the flanker picking up from 25-yards out and dashing home through a ragged defence.

Wales’ 10th Grand Slam was secured 100 years after they won their first, and home fans left to carry on the party of the century.

——————————————————————————–

Wales: Byrne, M. Jones, Shanklin, Henson, S. Williams, Hook, Phillips, Jenkins, Bennett, A. Jones, Gough, A. Jones, Thomas, M. Williams, R. Jones.
Replacements: S. Jones for Hook (56), Rees for Bennett (56), D. Jones for A. Jones (71), Evans for Gough (71). Not Used: Delve, Peel, Parker.

Sin Bin: Henson (40).

France: Pens: Elissalde 3, Yachvili. France: Floch, Clerc, Jauzion, Traille, Malzieu, Skrela, Elissalde, Barcella, Szarzewski, Mas, Nallet, Thion, Dusautoir, Ouedraogo, Bonnaire.
Replacements: Heymans for Floch (67), Trinh-Duc for Skrela (63), Yachvili for Elissalde (67), Servat for Szarzewski (44), Poux for Mas (62), Mela for Thion (75), Vermeulen for Ouedraogo (62).