AWJ set for yet another record as he closes in on 150 Wales caps
HE already has more records than EMI, but there’s another one heading Alun Wyn Jones’ way this autumn.
Not that he’ll make much of a fuss about it.
That isn’t his style.
But at some point in the coming weeks, probably when Wales face South Africa on November 6, Jones, who has worn the three feathers on his chest 148 times at senior level, will become the first rugby player in the world to play 150 Tests for his country.
It is an achievement few of generations past would have been able to comprehend.
Indeed, when Gareth Edwards became the first player to complete 50 Tests for Wales he was nearing the end of his career, playing just three more internationals before leaving the scene aged just 30. But the world has changed. Edwards played at a time when Wales often played just four or five times a year.
Fifty caps for his country meant a huge amount.
Before he faced England at Twickenham on a dismally wet early February day in 1978, the great scrumhalf had been hit by a strange attack of nerves.
Edwards later told how, in the days and weeks leading up to completing his half-century, he had been “afraid to get injured, terrified of a loss of form or failure”.
History tells us he needn’t have fretted.
Not only did he make it onto the pitch that day in London, he produced one of his greatest performances, unleashing countless rolling touchfinders, some of them stretching 60 metres, in a display perfectly attuned to the conditions.
It took him close on 11 years to compile his 50.
Jones got there in five years.
His second 50 came in another five, with the Ospreys player ringing up his century of Wales caps against New Zealand in 2016 - exactly 10 years to the day after he made his Test debut.
Now, a further five years on, he is within touching distance of his third 50.
There are also 12 Tests with the British and Irish Lions to factor into the mix, of course (which make Jones the most Test-capped player in the world, ahead of the man in second spot, the 148-cap Richie McCaw), but those shouldn’t dilute the achievement of Jones completing 150 internationals with Wales.
It will be pointless trying to extract a few words from him before he is actually selected for the relevant match, with the 36-year-old not being the type to take any selection for granted.
Were he in sight of his 50th game for the Dog & Duck Seconds, you could imagine him saying he didn’t want to assume anything and would wait for the side to be picked before passing comment.
That is Jones, s o meone who does things his way.
He is fiercely loyal as well.
Sean Holley tells a story of how, on his 40th birthday, he was having a bit of a celebration but as it was on the same day as a Wales v Australia game in Cardiff he hadn’t expected any of the Ospreys’ international players to show up.
But Jones made the effort.
“At around 11pm there was a knock on the door,” Holley recalls.
“I answered the door to find Alun Wyn and his partner, Anwen, who is now his wife. “Alun had a black eye and a bottle of champagne, which he thrust into my hands with the words: ‘I couldn’t pass, Holster, without coming in to wish you happy birthday’.”
The pair of them stayed to chat with the other guests.
Holley knows Jones well, while not many others do.
After more than a decade and a half on the Test scene, and even longer with the Ospreys, he remains someone who can be slow to truly open up in public.
But the marks he is setting as a player are remarkable.
Of the players he lined up with on his debut for Wales, he is the only one still playing on the senior scene.
Awarding him a seven out of 10 in their player ratings all those years ago, one website said of the new boy who played on the blindside flank that day against Argentina in Puerto Madryn: “Out of position but you wouldn’t have known it. A very positive debut.”
Many positive comments have come his way since.
Expect more plaudits on the occasion of his 150th Wales appearance.
All will be deserved.