Wales
Farewell Adam Jones, a bona fide Welsh great
Tom Hamilton
January 25, 2015
With the retirement of Adam Jones, Welsh rugby says goodbye to a great player and one of its biggest personalities, too © Getty Images
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And so after 13 years, with a wonderfully-penned feature and a customary press release, the international career of one of Wales' finest servants comes to an end. There was no long drawn out goodbye for Adam Jones, no chance to have a Brian O'Driscoll-esque fairytale finish, but instead he ducks out with minimal fanfare.

A Test career is inevitably surmised by numbers. His three Grand Slams, five Lions Test caps and 95 caps for Wales but in Jones' case it is just as much down to two others. 27 and 31. The first was how long he lasted back in 2003 before being substituted against England in the World Cup quarter-final. It was the nadir that made his Test career. The latter, 31, was the minute he was replaced against South Africa in the summer of 2014. It was the game that effectively signified the moment for Samson Lee to pass from the apprentice to the incumbent.

It is the first of these two numbers that deserved to be remembered when it comes to Jones, not for the experience in itself but the legacy it created. It was the proverbial kick up the backside he needed and two years later he was toasting his first Grand Slam. He had his second in 2008 and then won two caps on the 2009 British & Irish Lions tour before having his trip unceremoniously ended by Bakkies Botha. Then came 2012 and his third Slam, a feat only matched by Ryan Jones in recent times, and a year on he had his fourth Six Nations winner's medal and three more Lions caps.

Those feats can never be overplayed. The fuzzy-haired tight-head was synonymous with the Wales team for the best part of the last decade and he continually showed all new coming loose-heads their reverse gear.

On the club front, he won titles with the Ospreys but it was his awkward summer spent waiting for a new side which said much about the man's character. Instead of slumping away, he trained on his own and then with Neath and was eventually rewarded with a deal at the Blues. His Wales days are now over but he will continue to run out at the Arms Park.

It is a case of the King is dead, long live the King, with Lee now Wales first-choice No.3 and he should collect and enjoy many of the gongs Jones has collected over the duration of his Test career. But despite Lee's undoubted talent and indeed potential, you cannot help but feel that with Rhodri Jones out injured and Scott Andrews and Aaron Jarvis waiting in the wings, if Lee goes down on the eve of Wales' match against England on February 6 then Jones would slot in with aplomb and give Alex Corbisiero, Joe Marler or Mako Vunipola a real going over.

He exits with 95 Wales caps to his name and a wealth of memories. In the era of professionalism, Jones will sit as Wales' finest tight-head and in years to come, he should be mentioned in the same breath as Graham Price. For now, his attention returns to the Blues and to his family.

A career comes down to numbers but with Jones it has been so much more than that; he is a personality. He is someone who is the master of quips when being faced by the press and an individual who loved the game, with his momentary flight of fancy against Munster a manifestation of this. Any tight-head who feels the impulsive need to attempt a drop-goal and live out some schoolboy dream cements his place in rugby folklore. Jones combined a unique character and ability and for that, he deserves his place in the pantheon of Welsh greats.

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd
Tom Hamilton is the Associate Editor of ESPNscrum.

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