"Alun Wyn set the tone.You just wanted to follow him"

BECAUSE HE is a year older than me, and he tended to play a year up as well, I only played against Alun Wyn Jones once or twice growing up. So I think the first time I properly met him was early on in my professional career, at Llandovery College.

- KEN OWENS

Instantly he had a presence about him. Obviously he’s a big man, at 6ft 6in, but you could tell this was a serious guy. Then when I was first in a Wales camp, apart from the Scarlets there weren’t many guys I knew and he made a point of introducing himself, and that is the side people don’t see. They see the intense figure and what he’s like on the field – and he is 100% all the time, Alun Wyn only has one gear and it’s flat out all the time! But few see the subtle side of him, how caring he is. His family mean a lot to him and he’s a great bloke.

I mean this with all the love – you don’t achieve what he has in the game by being normal. You don’t play 170 Tests, including 12 consecutive British & Irish Lions Tests, and become Wales’ first-choice second-row for the best part of two decades by being normal!