FORGET about the Grand Slam. It starts all over again right now as Wales prepare to take on the three Southern Hemisphere giants this month.

Great achievement though the Triple Crown and Grand Slam was coming so soon after Wales’ disastrous exit from the World Cup, it gets really serious now as Wales get ready to take a big step up.

First are world champions South Africa at the Millennium Stadium on Saturday followed by a lesser test against Canada, then it’s New Zealand and finally come Australia.

Wales will have home advantage each time which should be a big help, but in reality it hasn’t been in the past for Wales have beaten the Springboks just once in 22 attempts, they last got the better of the All Blacks as far back as 1953 and though they’ve had more success against the Wallabies they haven’t defeated them for three years.

So it’s a tall order, but the bar has been significantly raised since Warren Gatland took over as coach after the World Cup debacle. Expectations have grown among the fans and Gatland himself is now eager for the next challenge which is testing himself as well as his team against the best the southern hemisphere has to offer.

He hasn’t been helped by all the politics which have gone on recently and deprived him of the squad members last weekend because the regions refused to release the players from the final group EDF Energy cup-ties.

But that is lying dormant - to be raised again once the autumn series is over, you can be sure - so the countdown is on to the first hurdle against the world champions.

Wales have a point to prove for they played two Tests in South Africa in June and lost both, though the second was a distinct improvement on the first.

They were without key players like Martyn Williams and Mike Phillips (still out) but still showed enough second time around, when they lost only in the closing stages, to prove they can give the Springboks a run for their money.

Wales can also take advantage of a South Africa squad, or management, which seems undecided about which way they want to play at the moment.

Their traditional strengths are to blast opponents out of their path with a physical, heavyweight pack who basically bully the opposition. Then pick a kicking outside half, a Butch James for example, and the plan becomes pretty obvious. Under new coach Peter de Villiers, though, they have tried to play a more expansive game with limited success because they came bottom in this year’s Tri Nations, even if they did achieve a memorable win in New Zealand.

They could easily fall between two stools and it will be up to Wales to exploit that by getting among them right from the off.

De Villiers is also experimenting in two positions. He has left James out of the touring party with the intention of trying Ruan Pienaar in the pivotal position, though normally a scrum half, but clearly versatile for his one appearance in last year’s World Cup was at full back against Tonga.

And there is also speculation that Springbok captain John Smit will switch to tight head prop instead of the hooker position he has occupied all his career – a really strange one that.

On the other hand the Ospreys, who form the bulk of the Welsh team, have been strangely off form and haven’t performed at anywhere near their best which must be a worry.

Particularly fallible has been their line-out which is another concern for Wales given that two members of the Ospreys trio of Ian Gough, Ian Evans and Alun Wyn Jones are the Wales locks, though another Osprey, Jonathan Thomas is the line-out caller and he has been ruled out.

Gatland will, nevertherless, use the time at his disposal this week to remind the players of some core values, instil in them a sharp dose of reality and drill home what wearing the jersey means. Does it take a New Zealander to do that? It does to drive the matter home it appears.

Gatland won’t be drawn on what he would regard as a success from the autumn series because he doesn’t want to be nailed by any predictions, but the absolute minimum would be one victory over the big three, two would be terrific and three would be the stuff of fairy tales. I have an awful feeling it’ll be none.