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When it comes to talking a good game, Warren Gatland is right up there with the best of them. A few weeks ago he was rubbishing England's scrum before watching them take his own Welsh forwards to pieces. And now he's at it again.

Hot on the heels of less than convincing wins over Scotland and Italy he's sent Martin Johnson a warning. "I don't think England will win all their games and if they slip up we are waiting to pounce. We can still win the title," is his Six Nations verdict.

When I read it first I laughed. And Betfair's punters aren't taking the idea too seriously either. Despite them occupying second place in the table you can currently get 55.0 to back the Welsh as outright winners with Ireland 50.0 and France 9.4 ahead of them in the betting. (Grand Slam chasing England, of course, are 1.15 favourites).

But doing a little delving it's not actually quite so fanciful. By the time Gatland picks a side to face Ireland in the Millenium Stadium in 11 days time he will have something like his strongest squad to pick from. The Western Mail calls it "the cavalry coming", and that's not a bad description.

This week the mercurial young talents of Jonathan Davies, Leigh Halfpenny and George North are all back in full training and that will give Wales significant extra firepower to take on an Irish side who have not found any sort of fluency in any of their three games so far.

Together the three young musketeers, who have come through the country's various academy systems, add a verve and dash to the side that was badly missing in their last Millenium appearance against England. Halfpenny has looked the full shilling for his kicking ever since his debut in 2008, while teenager North's 6ft 4ins frame has earned comparisons with Jonah Lomu. All of them seem to have an eye for a try scoring opening.

Gatland will also have the option of restoring James Hook back to his preferred role at fly half where he's already shown an ability to dictate a game.

Even if you don't think England will lose either of their remaining two games - and I must admit I'm starting to be won over by the progress being made, at last, under Martin Johnson's management - Wales are still the best bet in the handicap market. They are 2.18 to win with a 4.5 point advantage. At the very least, with a passionate Cardiff crowd behind them, they'll be worth backing at even money or slightly better to beat Ireland next weekend. And then who knows? As Warren Gatland says, if England slip up . . .

Five things you might not know about George North

1. Born in April 1982 in King's Lynn, Norfolk, he was 14 weeks old when his dad David moved the family to Hong Kong.
2. When they returned two years later they relocated to Anglesey near the home of mum Janet, where David began work as a blacksmith. He was 11 when he joined the local rugby club Llangefni where his elder brother played.
3. He is a fluent Welsh language speaker
4. He had to stop playing rugby as a 15-year-old when he broke his collar bone, and concentrated on athletics during the break - which helped him develop an extra turn of speed that he's kept since.
5. Aged 18 years and 214 days when he made his full Wales debut against South Africa, his two tries made him the youngest Welsh player ever to score a try on debut (beating by 24 days the record set by Tom Pearson in 1891)

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