WELSH FLAWS EXPOSED
PIVAC DOESN’T PULL ANY PUNCHES AFTER PUMAS CLINCH SUMMER SERIES WIN IN EMPHATIC FASHION AT PRINCIPALITY STADIUM
THIS was the Alun Wyn Jones show. Of course it was. It always was, even if the main attraction didn’t appear until late into the night’s entertainment. In the final warm-up match of the Lions tour, the man who had performed a Lazarus-like comeback to go from ruled out on matchday one of the tour to flying out to South Africa to answer Warren Gatland’s call.
The match against the Stormers was simply there to be confirmation that he was fit and ready to take some part in next Saturday’s first Test.
Nothing is a given, though.
This isn’t Wales, the domain that Jones has ruled for the best part of 15 years on his way to rugby immortality. Though there are no guarantees and nothing is taken for granted, Jones would always be expected to come back into the fold for his country regardless.
This is the Lions. Even though Jones has played in nine Tests for the tourists in a row – 10 if the Japan match in which he dislocated his shoulder is retrospectively capped – the Wales captain knows he won’t simply walk back into the Test line-up like that.
The likes of Maro Itoje and Iain Henderson will see to that.
Saturday’s showing proved that so too will Adam Beard and Jonny Hill.
For 50-odd minutes, Test rugby’s record cap-holder sat and watched two of the lesser-celebrated locks push their Test cases in Cape Town.
Beard was called out to South Africa as Jones’ replacement but he’s marked himself out as a potential Test player with his soft hands and incredible knack of being a nuisance to the opposition’s lineout maul.
If some questioned his call-up, those naysayers have gone very quiet now.
Hill, too, impressed with an 80-minute performance that would give Robin McBryde and Gatland plenty to think about.
For Jones, though, it was a case of biding his time.
As Beard strolled through for the Lions’ opening try, Jones was leading the replacements warming up in the in-goal area.
It was the same old story. The first to get in position for each drill.
On this occasion, the Lions’ fitness guru Bobby Stridgeon was watching, but even if no one was, Jones would still be driving the standards for his own benefit if nothing else.
At half-time, Jones continued his preparations to enter proceedings. At half-time, while going through more warm-ups, Stridgeon was there, literally clapping into the face of Jones.
Few would dare, but the affable Stridgeon can get away with that sort of thing in the name of motivation. Not that the second row needed it.
When he finally entered the fray on 54 minutes, fresh from former Wales hooker Huw Bennett warming him up with some
hefty shoulder bumps, Mark Morrison’s ‘Return of the Mack’ played over the PA system.
This was it, 26 minutes to decide his first Test fate.
Within seconds he was bellowing commands to his charges – and they are, again, now his charges.
“Eyes up, eyes up” was the booming call after the Lions conceded a scrum penalty.
Moments later he was looking to rip the ball from a Stormers jersey, while he tested his shoulder moments later with a couple of robust tackles.
For all the talk of being superhuman, his first lineout proved he is indeed fallible, with the ball bouncing off him as he rose into the sky.
But that mistake was soon put behind him.
As the Lions cut loose against the Stormers, Jones was a constant presence.
One lovely tip-on took two defenders out and put Zander Fagerson through a half-gap. From there, Jones was first in support to receive an offload and then immediately ship another one on.
That was the highlight of his offloading exploits, with another one being a hefty clearout that showed little worry for his shoulder.
So, too, was the image of Jones pulling up Fagerson from the ground solely with his recently injured left arm.
At times, you thought he was puffing a little, especially as the match entered the final 10 minutes.
But by the final few minutes he was jogging into place.
Just as he does in training, he was the first to every scrum, lineout or new phase of play.
That’s the attitude that got Jones to this point in his career. That’s the attitude that got him to this point of the tour.
It’s still a monumental risk to step up against the Springboks. The pleasing thing is that, with Itoje, Henderson, Beard, Hill, Tadhg Beirne and Courtney Lawes, he doesn’t necessarily need to take that risk.
The answer of whether Gatland would pick Jones for the Test series was never going to be definitively answered tonight.
However, with just 34 minutes of Lions rugby under his belt this summer, Jones has put himself on the brink of a Test place.
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