The games that made Alun Wyn Jones

As the Wales captain prepares for his record-breaking 149th cap, team-mates share their memories of his milestone Tests

First Test for Wales

Argentina 27-25 Wales (June 2006) Adam Jones, Wales prop

That first Test, he played blindside flanker if I remember correctly. Ian Evans scored a 50-yard interception and we had t wo yellow cards towards the end.

What Jones has always been good at is knowing where he was in the pecking order and respecting the rugby tradition of the elder statesmen, so that when he did become Ospreys captain, he still came to the senior players. He was never, “I’m captain, you have to listen to me.” He would happily take advice.

How he has grown i nto the captaincy has been unbelievable. Playing those three Tests with the Lions in 2009, he was still quite young. He l earnt f r om Paul O’connell and those guys. He has this aura now, the same as O’connell and Martin Johnson.

I heard some whispers about him getting stuck into a few of the young boys at the Ospreys this year who were complaining about some fitness drill they were doing. Al was there going, “I’m 35, just get on with it, do it to the best of your best ability and stop whingeing about it.”

He has always been like that – 100 per cent in everything he does. That makes people want to follow him and get to his standard.

He will be absolutely hating the attention. I will spend the majority of this week winding him up about it.

First Test as Wales captain

Italy 15-20 Wales (March 2009) Luke Charteris, Wales lock

When it comes to his on-field leadership, he is not a huge screamer and shouter. From that Italy game onwards, he tends to lead by his example and his passion. He had a good grasp early doors that he was not the most experienced in the squad. It i s one of the skills of younger captains, relying on other players around them.

I was in the squad probably a couple of years before him. When he first came in he just had no fear in terms of talking among the group. He always set unbelievably high standards. Even when he was not captaining the side he was always one of the leaders in the team.

Early doors, if he ever dropped the ball in training he would hit the deck and do 10 press-ups, bounce back. If you were going from one huddle to another he would always sprint and beat you there. He set those standards of himself and the boys followed that.

Certain players rise to t he occasion when they are captain, but Al never needed that. He was always at that same level, from day one to the last time I played with him to now. It does not change at all, which is unbelievable, and testament to why he is still going.

When I think back through how many campaigns and pre-seasons he must have done, to keep that motivation and those standards, it is mentally, more than physically, unbelievably impressive.

First Test as Lions captain

Australia 16-41 Lions (July 2013) Sean O’brien, Lions flanker

On that tour, there was a six- onthree overlap, I fended off the fly-half and scored. I remember walking back and he had this big grumpy head on him.

I said, “What’s wrong with you?” He replied, “You should have f-----passed the ball!”

He was just off my shoulder and would have had a walk-in. If he was in my situation he would have passed it, he is selfless. I blamed him for not giving me the call.

The third Test was his first time as Lions captain. He is obviously an incredibly fit athlete, but he led us so well that week, knowing how big a game it was, missing some big players who were not in the squad. He filled that void very quickly with the way he went about things. He is just one of those players who leads by his actions, high energy, high work rate, knows all of his details. That was an incredible day and a nice moment for him and his wife and family. A great lad and good craic off the field, too.

You want him in the trenches with you, and he is one of those players you do not want to be playing against, because he will be in your face for the full 80 minutes.

Even from under-21s when I faced him, he was abrasive. I would much rather play alongside him than against him. That is as big a compliment as you can give a rugby player.

Captaining Wales to Grand Slam

Wales 25-7 Ireland (March 2019) Aled Davies, Wales scrum-half

That week, he was quite relaxed. We were very confident. The main message was that if we concentrated on ourselves we would be all right. Ireland were not doing that well. England was the biggest test for us a couple of weeks before, we won that and then just dominated Ireland.

In general, as a man he is unbelievable, the standards he sets every day, and he is a top bloke really. Even though he has won nearly 150 caps, which is mad, he is still a nice guy and you can talk to him. When I first came into the Welsh squad, you are thinking, “Oh, that’s Alun Wyn Jones,” but he is the first guy to come to speak to you and to make you feel welcome. When he does that, you feel like you can relax.

When I was growing up watching him, he was playing every game for Wales and every game for the Ospreys. It is testament to how professional he is and how much he looks after himself.

Even though he has that many Test caps, he would still be running around in Ospreys training with the same enthusiasm. He is relentless.