Peter Jackson: World Cup is a fitting finale for Hair Bear

PeOnly one prop has lasted long enough to win four Grand Slams – Jason Leonard over a period spanning the last nine years of the 20th century and the first three of the 21st. Nobody would bet against England’s Barking boy still being out on his own come the end of the next Six Nations.
Adam Jones is far too smart to tempt fate by saying so publicly, but the Lions tour will make Wales worthy favourites for a fourth Slam in nine years.
Should it come to pass, the immovable Osprey will then take one last shot at emulating Leonard by winning the World Cup which the popular Londoner won with England in 2003.   That such a goal has moved from wishful thinking to hard-nosed reality says much for Wales’ rising status, albeit most recently at the expense of the first mediocre Australian team in 30 years.
It says even more about Jones and his transformation from a puffing fat boy with limited powers of endurance to the most admired tighthead in the game.   The one player Wales can least afford to be without isn’t George North, Jamie Roberts, Mike Phillips, Alun-Wyn Jones, Danny Lydiate or Toby Faletau.
It’s not even Sam Warburton but the Hair Bear from Abercrave, the tighthead who repeatedly splintered the Wallabies where it hurt most. Jones has mapped out the remainder of his career, hoping that Somebody Up There helps him achieve the ultimate end-game – the World Cup final at Twickenham in October 2015.
If Wales go one better than in New Zealand two years ago, Jones will have a maximum of some 30 internationals between now and then. Given a fair wind, he could easily overtake Leonard’s haul of 119 Tests which makes the former chippie from the East End the most-capped prop of all.
Ironically, another Welshman is likely to give Jones the most serious run for his money.  Gethin Jenkins, at 32 a few months older than his compatriot and another aiming for a fourth personal Slam, has 103 Tests to his name, a figure which would have been higher still but for injury eliminating him from the entire Lions’ series.
Jones, up to 94 and counting, has long become the less replaceable of the two.   As he puts his feet up before starting delayed pre-season training early next month, he will find some of his earliest experiences a constant source of amusement.
He had the misfortune to make his Wales debut on the hot August Saturday ten years ago when England’s reserves roasted their neighbours 43-9.  Ironically, Leonard, captain of the English stiffs, made it to the World Cup a few weeks later only as cover for the preferred loosehead, Trevor Woodman.
Jones, subjected to the embarrassment of being substituted after half an hour, could have been forgiven for wondering whether he would ever be seen on the big stage again.
Worse still, the Welsh management left nobody in any doubt that they considered him over-weight and under-prepared.   Steve Hansen, then in charge as head coach after Graham Henry’s abrupt return to New Zealand, said of the novice tighthead: “He’s not very agile, not very mobile and soon runs out of energy.”
Jones is not the only Welshman to be grateful to Hansen, not that he would have appreciated it at the time.  The rebuke had the desired effect. Jones reduced his intake of chocolate, chips and beer, slimmed down to the right side of 20 stone and, by sheer hard work, turned himself into the best of an endlessly punishing trade.
He will not turn 33 until the closing weeks of the Six Nations next March. Leonard went on into his 36th year with England, not that Jones has any intention of hanging around that long.
A fourth Grand Slam would be very nice but a bigger prize looms on the horizon above all else in the 2015 World Cup.  With typical modesty, his ambitions in that direction come with a caveat.
“I fully understand if ‘Gats’ wants to blood new players before then,” he says. “If it’s the case that he wants me to finish, I’ll finish.”
There is as much chance of that happening as the cities of Swansea and Cardiff finishing first and second in the Premier League.