Peter Jackson: Dr Ron still at the head of Grand Slam pack

It has been said of Dr Ronald Cove-Smith that he never turned up on a Saturday afternoon without his little black surgical bag to ensure everyone went home in one piece. In between stitching up victims of his ferociously legitimate brand of tackling or bringing others around, the teetotal, non-smoking Londoner achieved the ultimate – a Grand Slam of Grand Slams while embarking on a career as a distinguished physician as reflected in his vice-presidency of the British Medical Association.
Captain of the Lions when they first assumed the title in 1924, ‘Cove’ helped England win their quartet of Slams during the Roaring Twenties. Since then, just two players have been good enough for long enough to emulate his achievement – Jason Leonard and Fabien Pelous.
Neither Barking’s apprentice carpenter nor the French giant, for all their double century of caps, got anywhere close to matching one aspect of the English doctor’s. He first appeared in the 1921 team in the back row and started the 1928 Slam in the front row while spending the rest of the time in the second row, his specialist position.
Leonard won his fourth Slam in 2003, Pelous the following year. Sadly, the prospect of their being joined by another forward who began his sporting life as a goalkeeper at Bristol City has been obliterated before the biggest annual international bonanza begins.
Ryan Jones, a triple Grand Slammer with Wales, has been denied a crack at one more. A damaged hamstring has put him out of the tournament and, at coming up 33, there is always the danger that it will put him out of it for good.
His removal from the starting grid prompts an immediate question – who will bale Wales out of trouble against Ireland should they find themselves in a predicament in Dublin on Saturday week similar to when they were last there two years ago?
Wales had lost their captain, Sam Warburton, to injury at half-time and one of their locks, Bradley Davies, to the bin for a yellow card when he deserved a red one as the subsequent seven-week ban confirmed. And they were also losing the match.
They were still losing it with 13 seconds left when Leigh Halfpenny struck the winning goal. By then Jones, more than anyone else, had dragged Wales off the ropes with a brand of leadership which hasn’t always been appreciated.
He had lost the captaincy in unnecessarily humiliating circumstances the previous season, straight after conceding the last-minute penalty which allowed Fiji to scramble a draw in Cardiff. By then he had been superseded on the blindside of the back row by Danny Lydiate and been elbowed out of the second row by the combined might of Alun-Wyn Jones, Ian Evans, Luke Charteris and the aforesaid Davies.
That Wales made sure they found room for Jones on the bench said everything about his enduring importance. Few captains lose the armband and their starting place straight after an emphatic win, as Jones did following the Scottish match two years ago.
He took it on the chin and still played a role in the win at Twickenham as a second row reinforcement, as he did at No. 8 for the closing acts of the Slam against Italy and France.
“The players we remember,” Jones once said. “Are the ones who have had that longevity and who have weathered the storms. And the way to do that is not to go to extremes, not to torture yourself mentally and physically.”
With more players lasting longer at the highest level, Jones will almost certainly be breaking new ground next season should Bristol win promotion to the English Premiership. They have reputedly offered him £200,000-a-year for the next two years in which event he may still get another shot at a fourth Slam.
The next few weeks will determine whether one or both of his front row partners in the Grand Slam business – Adam Jones and Gethin Jenkins – are fit to turn their trebles into quadruples.
They will have to go some to emulate Cove-Smith who died in 1988 at the age of 88. When a burglar broke into his house, the good doctor, then in his 70s, locked the intruder in a cupboard until police arrived.