However, if Lamont strays, as he did so devastatingly against France, scoring the first of Scotland’s two tries at centre and the second with a drive through the heart of a driving maul that a hairy-back forward would treasure, then Jones, a thoroughbred among wings, is unlikely to track him.
Instead, the man known as the Builth Wells Express will keep to his station on the outside right, sensing that if his teammates successfully hunt down the Scottish maverick infield, and the ball is then pilfered, he can use his blistering pace to exploit Lamont being out of position, turning Scotland’s strength into a costly weakness.
If turning the tables on Lamont sounds daunting, don’t expect Jones to wilt. Daunting for Jones is different, because every day he counts his blessings that, instead of being one of professional rugby’s premature crocks, he has been rebuilt so well that he can again pit himself against the best in the Six Nations.
Fourteen months ago Jones contemplated the abyss at the age of 24 — life without rugby, the game he had dedicated himself to since childhood. The scrapheap loomed soon after the Llanelli Scarlets flyer returned home having been part of a blossoming Wales squad that had put the frighteners on New Zealand and England during the 2003 World Cup. A training ground injury at Llanelli, which snapped his anterior cruciate ligament, resulted in a left- knee reconstruction, followed by a gruelling nine-month rehabilitation programme.
Lightning is not supposed to strike twice, but it did with Jones. Only 20 minutes into his second game back, his right knee was wrecked. “The Scarlets signed me from Llandovery at 19, and my first game back was with them, but when their next match was cancelled, Gareth Jenkins, the Scarlets boss, got me a game for Carmarthen Quins,” Jones says. “I felt sharper, and had a run where I stepped inside the full- back, but my leg stuck in the mud just as a cover tackler hit me . . .”
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This time the knee was so swollen it took five weeks before a scan confirmed that his right anterior cruciate had been blown to smithereens. “Those were dark days. I couldn’t walk, and I thought there was so much damage that it might be over,” Jones says.
That scepticism was not shared by Mark Holt, the orthopaedic surgeon at Morriston Hospital, Swansea, who had done the first reconstruction, and his approach convinced Jones there was a way back. “As soon as he told me he could fix it, I believed. Mr Holt is one of those rare people who instils confidence, because he won’t say things to please.”
Jones says Holt used the patella tendon in his knees for both operations, rather than the usual hamstring, because of his freakish flexibility. “He did a number of tests to find out my tissue type and decided a graft from my hamstring might stretch too much, so we opted for the patella, which is stiffer.”
Jones was helped through the lonely haul of two years rehabilitation by the main supports in his life, his fiancée Helen, a sports science lecturer, and his parents Gwyn and Brenda, who run a livestock farm near Builth Wells, a market town in mid-Wales.
“They are my heroes, because they motivated me to go to the gym for six to eight hours a day nearly every day for two years. My parents were probably the only people more disappointed in my injuries than me. They have been very tied to the farm, but from when I started mini-rugby at Builth RFC, and then went to Builth High School and was selected for Wales Schools and Youth teams, they drove me everywhere, including long trips to Cardiff for training. Helen was also brilliant, and, being very stubborn, she made sure I did what I was meant to.”
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Jones was also revved up by a parcel that arrived two days after the second operation. “Inside was a ref’s kit, a whistle, a rule book, and red and yellow cards. There was also a note from Scott Johnson, the Wales assistant coach, that read, ‘Good luck in your new career — hope it lasts longer than the old one’. It was saying to me, ‘Prove them wrong’.”
Jones has done just that, spurred on not only by Johnson’s clever psychological nudge, but by the sense that if he quit he would be doing himself, and all those who had helped him to become a Wales international, a grave injustice.
“It’s made me grow, for sure,” he says. “Playing rugby had been my dream from a young boy, and I felt it would be selfish to give it up, especially as I had been given another chance at something so many people would love to do.”
After a gradual build-up he showed he was back to his best, when, in December, he scored a spectacular 50-metre try against Wasps in the Heineken Cup at Stradey Park. “It was the boost I needed. All my fitness tests were telling me I was better than before the injuries, but I hadn’t done it on the field, and the question mark was there. Everyone in the ground needed me to do it, and I needed to do it.”
The recall for Wales followed, and Jones won his 17th cap at Twickenham — three years after his 16th, also against England — and despite the heavy defeat, he gave the English defence the flutters.
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Jones says that the Six Nations remains wide open, and that Wales, who have three home games, must not be derailed by the resurgent Scots, in particular Lamont. “Whether it’s Sean Lamont or Jonah Lomu, you must never be underprepared. Sean was very impressive against France, and it will be very important to get in early and cut his space down, and not to kick loosely. He can hurt teams — I just hope he doesn’t hurt us.”
Lamont should be aware that where handling hurt is concerned, and coming back from it, few have better credentials than the Builth Wells Express.