Dragons and Wales second row Ben Carter fells the game against the Barbarians on Saturday was good preparation for this weekend’s clash against Fiji.
Carter started at lock during Wales’ 33-31 win against the Barbarians at Twickenham and is looking forward to this summer’s Nations Championship fixtures against Fiji, Argentina and South Africa.
“It was good to get back out there, the first game I’ve played in five weeks now,” said Carter.
“It’s nice to have a week where you have something you’re building towards on the Saturday and also something to reflect on now this week and see areas where we can work going into the next game.”
The next game sees Wales face Fiji, a fixture which has a rich recent history.
Fiji won the last meeting between the two sides in November 2024 after Wales’ crucial win during the group stages of the 2023 World Cup.
“Fiji will be a very physical side and we’re aware of their offload threat, probably similar to what we faced against the Baa-Baas,” said Carter.
“Making sure that we have a focus on ourselves as well and definitely looking on things we can improve from our previous game.
“It’s been a while since we played and it was good to highlight some things that we need to spend more time on with lots of positives to take going forward.”
Carter started the final three games of Wales’ Six Nations, including the win against Italy and is now hoping for more chances to represent his country over the inaugural Nations Championship.
“I’ll just be grateful to get any opportunities,” said Carter.
“I was grateful to get the start against the Barbarians and the involvements I had during the Six Nations so if I can build on that then that will be brilliant.
“I think there’s a lot of depth at second row, a lot of quality, so I’ll be fighting hard to retain my place there.”
The 25-year-old is an exceptional defender as demonstrated when he won the URC’s IPVanish Tackle Machine Award for the 2025/26 season.
Now he has the opportunity to learn more from new Wales defence coach Peter Murchie.
“Murchie’s been building and adding detail to some of our fundamentals we had during the Six Nations,” said Carter.
“Building accountability and adding layers is what I’ve seen so far, building on what we had and not massive change.
“We had three fundamentals in defence during the Six Nations which is good for clarity.”
