100
BEST PLAYERS
himself may be testing history to its
breaking point, but it did seem justified.
There was an outside view as well.
“Alun Wyn Jones is the best player that
the northern hemisphere has produced
in the 21st century,” said Will Greenwood
in his newspaper column.
No one could take issue at the time and
I suspect that few will take issue with our
choice of Jones as No 1 in our 100 Best
Players in the World Right Now. For me,
that whole day and the celebrations that
followed revealed the Welsh captain in
an extraordinary light. Everything he did
seemed to be touched either by playing
excellence, by magnificent leadership,
and by all the trappings of the Slam and
the profile bestowed these days upon
great players by the public and media.
There was the early lineout when the
colossus called the ball to himself,
setting up the position for the first Welsh
try by Hadleigh Parkes. Then there was
that chilling moment when he sank to
the ground as if he had badly twisted a
knee, and you could see his face screw
up into a grimace of agony. For a whileit seemed that the great talisman would
be departing. Yet within minutes, he had
run round the end of a lineout, taken the
ball and smashed through four or five
Irish tackles, biting off acres of territory.
That run told Ireland all they didn’t want
to know. And he had a towering game.
His influence went on and on. So
much is made these days of contact
between the captains and the referee.
Many coaches spend ages trying to
develop leaders in their team, so that the
referee will respect and take on board
what the captain is saying, whether in
words or shrugs or blank stares.Alun Wyn Jones proves conclusively
that leaders are born, and that
leadership skills cannot simply be
adopted into the psyche like handling
skills or goalkicking accuracy.
Wales won because they had leaders
in key positions and a soaring supremo.
As he loomed over the referees during
the Six Nations and loomed over Angus
Gardner in the climax against Ireland, it
seemed that the two-referee system so
often mooted in the sport had come into
being. One was dressed in red.
The spotlight was still on Alun Wyn as
the final whistle blew, as the post-match
interviews were conducted – and there
was no gibberish from the captain; it was
as if he had prepared words in his head.
After the game he was snapped with
his daughters. On the Monday the squadwas given a reception at The Senedd,
the Welsh Assembly building. The
mantel of greatness had wrapped itself
around the man with the trophy. It was
a transcension of mere sporting fame.
And yet of all the images, probably
the most striking was that which only
a few opportunist amateur snappers
captured about two hours after the
match. Jones had done his celebrations
and the lap of honour with the team and
his media duties and taken part in the
dressing-room bonding, then he walked
back down the tunnel and simply sat
alone in a seat close to the pitch.No one bothered him. A few of the
staff were still there, but even the army
of security men had left. We watched
him from the press box on the opposite
side. We guessed that he had suddenly,
in all the tumult, grasped that this was a
moment of career history and before he
was swept away in all the post-match
rigmarole, he wanted to savour it so it
was locked in his head for all time.
Next time he comes out to play for
Wales, he will overtake Gethin Jenkins
as the most-capped Welsh player. He is
currently on 134, taking in Wales and
Lions Test appearances, alongside
Jenkins. If he stays fit, he could well
play, say, two Welsh warm-up games and
another handful in the World Cup itself.
He will be 34 at the end of the
Grand day out With his family after the Slam win tournament, but never forget that is fiveCaptain marvel
Rallying his Wales team