INJURIES GIVE PROP SANSOM SO LITTLE LEE-WAY

WHEN Adam Jones walked away from international rugby, he was leaving the Wales No. 3 jersey in safe hands.

With three Grand Slams, a further championship and 95 Wales caps behind him, legendary status was confirmed.

But around the summer of 2014, his place in the Wales team was coming under threat from a 22-year-old from Llanelli.

In what would be Jones’s final Test match for Wales, he was hooked off after 30 minutes against South Africa in Durban to be replaced by Samson Lee.

He was then left out of Wales’s squad the following autumn and retired from international rugby in January 2015, choosing to go out on his own terms.

But one of Welsh rugby’s favourite sons reserved no bitterness for the youngster coming through to take his place. It was not his style.

“We’ve got a gem on our hands,” he said of Lee in 2015.

“As much as I’m disappointed to lose my place, I think we’ve got a once-in-a-generation tighthead in Lee.

“Hopefully Wales will look after him and wrap him in cotton wool for the next 10 years.”

But few things are guaranteed in professional sport and five years into that 10-year project, things have not gone to script.

Injuries seem to have followed Lee around every corner, mercilessly sidelining him at the most inopportune moments.

He has faced stiff competition of his own, with credible rivals for the No. 3 jersey developing and, ultimately, usurping him.

It has not been an easy time. Shortly after Jones lauded Wales’s new prop star in 2015, Lee suffered a serious Achilles injury which ruled him out for seven months. He recovered to take his place in Wales’s World Cup squad, though questions remained over his level of fitness.

Then there was shoulder surgery in 2016, a knee injury that put him out of the summer tour in 2017 and further Achilles problems the following autumn.

In 2018, he travelled to America and Argentina on the summer tour but left a week early. A back injury prevented him from playing a single minute.

Later that year, a hamstring injury put him out of the autumn series and another injury curtailed his involvement in the 2019 Grand Slam.

“Unfortunately, Achilles and back problems are the injuries you wouldn’t want to get as a prop,” explains Ioan Cunningham, who had been Scarlets forwards coach for nine seasons before leaving his post earlier this summer.

“As a tighthead you always try to be as strong as possible because you have to hold so much time in tension and then there’s force coming through your body.

“The stronger you can be, the better and Samson is extremely strong.

“It’s testament to him that he’s recovered and come back from these injuries. To stick in there and come through is great for him.”

They were frustrating setbacks, mainly because of the promise he showed when he was able to take the field.

Lee made his name as an outand-out scrummager but showed that he was changing with the times.

During outings with the Scarlets, he became far more noticeable around the field and a more willing ball-carrier.

There was evidence to suggest he could play a role in Wales’s supposed new expansive game-plan.

“I’ve known Samson since he was about 16 and he lived for