Mike Ruddocks Grand Slams champions have claimed fifth spot on the International Rugby Board chart, only one place behind last years champions France and one place clear of England, with Ireland down to seventh.

It is further confirmation of a remarkable Welsh revival, one that has seen them graduate from hapless RBS 6 Nations wooden spoonists to Europes rugby throne in just two years.

Two years ago, we didnt win a game, recalled 48 times-capped fly-half orchestrator Stephen Jones, after the Grand Slam and Triple Crown-clinching 32-20 victory over Ireland.

It is the same nucleus of players, and to be a part of a squad that has turned things around through a lot of hard work and that little bit more experience, is a very special place to be.

You have to give everyone credit across the board. Weve slowly progressed. We didnt get a major scalp in the autumn Tests, but we nearly did, and since then weve kept moving forward.

It was very important for us to get our first major scalp, and we were fortunate enough to do that at home to England, added Jones, a firm favourite for British & Irish Lions number 10 duties in this summers three-Test series against the All Blacks.

If you look at it from an analytical point of view, the rugby we played that day wasnt very good, and our performances improved during the Six Nations. But from that game, we took a lot of confidence.

There has been a lot of hard work put in, especially during the World Cup year. We played two decent games at the World Cup (against New Zealand and England), but if you look before that, we played particularly poorly.

We had to work on our fitness, we had to get things up to scratch and then things suddenly started coming together.

At the start of this Six Nations, we probably wouldnt have been the favourites for the tournament, which was a good situation to be in.

The team spirit and ambience of the squad is very special. Because that is so strong, the focus is solely on the rugby.