The joy of Six makes Wales a stiff test for the mighty Springboks

Wales are now up to sixth in the world rugby union rankings, their highest position since they reached fifth place after the Grand Slam triumph of 2005.

In contrast, France have slipped to their lowest-ever placing since the rankings were introduced in late 2003. This surely bodes well for the two games, on June 7 and 14, against Rugby World Cup holders South Africa.

Wales are in the best shape they have been … ever! We have the players, the skill, the fitness and the management to take the Springboks on in all aspects of the game.

Now don’t get me wrong, we are not going to go out to South Africa and take them apart – hey, we’re sixth in the world, not second! But I think we can put in a gritty, determined and powerful display that will be completely different to the way we played in the World Cup and this will be our strength.

Wales have players now who are some of the best in their positions in the Northern Hemisphere. Shane Williams, Lee Byrne, Martyn Williams … I could go on all day. Ryan Jones, Ian Gough – and so on.

In addition to this, we have a tremendous level of self-belief, which I think is what we lacked in 2005. I don’t know if it was that people thought we STUMBLED our way to the Six Nations win in 2005 – if that was the case then there can be no doubt that we thoroughly deserved our win this year and made some of the opposition look distinctly average.

Yes, England did do us a favour by self-destructing in the second half at Twickenham, but we still had to play – they didn’t score our points for us!!

This set us off on a good start and we built on our performances week by week. That said, there is still room for improvement and potential to work on, and I think by the next World Cup Wales will be real contenders for the throne.

Two hard games lie ahead in June, but I think we can beat the South Africans and show the world that we are, once again, a force to be reckoned with in world rugby.