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 maul that a hairy-backed forward would treasure, then Jones, a true thoroughbred wing, is unlikely to track him.
Instead, the man known as the Builth Wells Express will keep to the outside right, sensing that if his teammates successfully hunt down the Scottish maverick and pilfer the ball, he can use his 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 after having both knees wrecked — take a bow, Mark Holt, orthopaedic surgeon at Morriston Hospital, Swansea — that he is the Six Nations version of the Bionic Man.
Fourteen months ago Jones contemplated the abyss: life without rugby, the game he had dedicated himself to since boyhood. The scrapheap loomed after he returned home having helped Wales to put the frighteners on England in the 2003 World Cup. A training ground injury at Llanelli, which snapped his anterior cruciate ligament, resulted in a left-knee reconstruction, followed by nine months of gruelling rehabilitation.
Lightning is not supposed to strike twice, but it did for the Llanelli flyer; only now it was his right knee that was blown to smithereens. Cruellest of all, it came 20 minutes into his second game back from the first rebuild, in a run-out for Carmarthen Quins.
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Jones was helped through the lonely haul of two years’ constant recovery by the main supports in his life, fiancée Helen, a sports science lecturer, and parents Gwyn and Brenda, who run a livestock farm near Builth Wells in Mid-Wales, where they raised Mark and his older brothers, Phillip and Neil.
“They are my heroes, because they motivated me to go to the gym for six to eight hours a day, nearly every day,” Jones says. “My parents were probably the only people more disappointed by my injuries than me.
“They have been 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 stubborn, she made sure I did what I was meant to.”
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 rulebook and red and yellow cards. There was a note from Scott Johnson, the Wales assistant coach, which read, ‘Good luck in your new career — hope it lasts longer than the old one’. It was saying to me: Prove them wrong.”
The 26-year-old has done just that. After scoring a brilliant try against Wasps in the Heineken Cup, he was recalled by Wales and won his 17th cap at Twickenham. Despite the defeat, he gave the English defence flutters.
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Jones says the Six Nations remains wide open, and that Wales 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 important to get in early and cut his space down, and not to kick loosely. He can hurt teams.”
However, Lamont should be aware that where handling hurt is concerned, few have better credentials than the Builth Wells Express.