Wales skipper defying the odds in race to lead Lions
A WISE man once suggested 10 soldiers wisely led would beat a hundred without a head.
But to be a great leader requires countless different qualities, including a thick skin.
In 23 months, Graham Gooch went from being an English sporting hero, with a writer in The Times suggesting he was “only a little lower than the angels”, to a figure a fair way short of such status, with The Sun offering him the advice it was “Time to Texago, Goochie” after England’s cricketers came up short in the Texaco Cup.
He resigned as skipper a month later.
What of the leadership of the 2021 British and Irish Lions?
Back in August 2017 a bookmaker produced a list of candidates to captain the tourists against South Africa this summer. It had on it 22 names, including five Welshmen, but they didn’t include Alun Wyn Jones, presumably on grounds of his age.
But since then the Osprey has led Wales to two Six Nations titles, including a Grand Slam, with his captaincy crucial to both successes. If he hasn’t quite discovered the secret of eternal youth, he has played some career-best rugby and his leadership has often been inspirational.
Today, he is odds-on favourite to skipper the tourists in South Africa.
A leading odds-setter has him down at 4-7 to wear the armband in Warren Gatland’s squad.
Despite an ordinary Six Nations for England which saw Eddie Jones’s side finish fifth, Owen Farrell (circled, above) is next on the list, with his team-mate Maro Itoje rated fourth favourite, behind Ireland’s Jonathan Sexton.
Stuart Hogg, a 20-1 shot, did his cause no harm at all with some of his pronouncements before and after Scotland’s game with France on Friday evening. Declining to accept the match was all about the title-seeking French securing a 21-point margin of victory and running in four tries, the full-back declared himself “hacked off” at a narrative that had seen the Scots written off before they took the Stade de France pitch.
Then immediately after his side’s victory Hogg resisted the temptation to go into triumphalist mode and instead talked of continuing to work hard.
Gatland would have bought into that. Ken Owens is 25-1 to be skipper. Sam Warburton has floated the Wales hooker’s name as a potential Lions captain, calling him a superb leader and arguing he’s now ahead of Luke Cowan-dickie and Jamie George for the job of starting hooker.
But Jones is the man still thought most likely to lead.
In a recent column for the BBC, Matt Dawson hailed the Welshman’s qualities as a leader, saying after the match between Wales and England: “I hear the England players and it is all cajoling and tapping people on the bum telling them it is OK when they have just given away their 13th penalty.
“Then you look at Wales captain Alun Wyn Jones when something does not go right – he has this steely look about him.
“I was co-commentating with Wales fly-half Rhys Patchell and he called it the ‘Alun Wyn stare.’ Everybody knows if you make a mistake and he gives you one of those looks, you are never going to do it again.”
It’s all about having standards, and influence as well.
Rob Howley once reckoned the mere fact of having Jones in the side encouraged other players to raise their performance levels.
Gatland had plenty of time to acquaint himself with such a situation, and he’ll have seen for himself this season that Jones is playing as well as ever.
It’s why it would now be a surprise if the Welshman wasn’t named skipper of this year’s Lions.
Not bad for a bloke some thought at one point was unlikely to be involved at all. ■ Lions captaincy odds: 4-7 Alun Wyn Jones, 2 Owen Farrell, 8 Jonny Sexton, 11 Maro Itoje, 20 Stuart Hogg, 25 Ken Owens.