WALES lock Luke Charteris believes Newport Gwent Dragons team-mate Jason Tovey can go all the way and play for his country.

Twenty-year-old Tovey has been in a rich vein of form since switching from full back to outside-half for the Dragons three games ago and taking over the goal-kicking role as well.

In those three fixtures, against the Ospreys and Saracens in the LV Cup and Ulster in the Magners League, he has scored 55 points, all from the boot.

He hasn’t missed a shot at goal in that time and his 17 points in Friday night’s highly creditable 22-22 draw against Ulster at Ravenhill meant he has now put 19 successive kicks through the opposition uprights.

He earned the man-of-the-match award in Belfast, though pressed hard by acting captain Charteris, but forgot to pick up the bottle of champagne that went with it, the bottle snaffled by Ulster and Ireland centre Paddy Wallace instead.

“Jason can definitely go all the way,” said Charteris, who led the side superbly and rallied the troops after they went 17-6 down, recovering to lead 19-17 and battle their way to a draw.

“Jason is a special player, we’ve known that for quite a while,” said Charteris. “His performance against Ulster was superb, he controls the game and gets our backline going, which gives us all confidence.

“He plays with a spark and Darren (backs coach Darren Edwards) has got a lot out of him. He’s been outstanding in his three games at 10, he’s been getting his hands on the ball a lot, which he wasn’t when he was at full back.”

Cardiff Blues closed the gap on the Dragons to two points with their victory in Glasgow on Friday night, but the Dragons’ two points against Ulster plus the Scarlets’ defeat by Leinster in Dublin on Saturday means they are now eight points ahead of their West Wales rivals.

The pair have seven league games left – the Blues have six – and the Scarlets will now have to win two more than the Dragons if they are to overhaul them in the bid for automatic Heineken Cup qualification by avoiding being last-placed Welsh team.

“It’s in our hands now,” said Charteris. “But we are not looking to be third Welsh team, we want to be one of the top four teams who get into the play-offs, that’s our aim.

“We got some good results at the beginning of the season and confidence was high, then we went into our shells, but now we’re buzzing again.

“We’ve got so many exciting young players in the team and they’ve got to be encouraged to go out and play.

“The boys played brilliantly against Ulster and carried on from the LV Cup so we’ve got to be happy. But our indiscipline cost us in the first half when they got their points. But you couldn’t fault the effort and the way everybody put their bodies on the line. We switched off a bit when they got their second try after we led 19-17, then Jason got a great dropped goal.”

Charteris, who moves from his Bath home to Caerleon later this year, was outstanding against Ulster and should have clinched his return to the Welsh team to face France at the Millennium Stadium on Friday night.

Coach Warren Gatland has delayed naming it until this evening from the original lunchtime arrangement to carry out rigorous fitness checks, but Charteris is expected to partner young Blues lock Bradley Davies, who has been told he’s in the side despite the tragically premature death of his mother.

Jonathan Thomas is set to switch to blindside, with Huw Bennet at hooker and Richie Rees at scrum-half in other changes from the Scotland game.

Meanwhile, Gatland has told his players they will be confined to their Vale of Glamorgan base after the match and will be banned from drinking in city centre pubs and clubs after the Andy Powell ‘buggygate’ incident, which will result in a court case next month and led to him being thrown out of the squad.