LONG READ Who's next up in Wales' long search for a tighthead titan to succeed 'Bomb'?

“In my country, if you sit beside the phone long enough, it will ring and you will be invited to play rugby for Belgium.” So quipped the former International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge. Are we reaching the point where we can say something similar about the tighthead fraternity in Wales?

Stay contactable for long enough and the call will come? It sometimes seems like that.

Over barely three-and-a-half years, Wales have given opportunities to no fewer than 10 players in the scrum-anchor position as they seek to develop depth in the build-up to the next World Cup. We haven’t yet arrived at the point where find-a-tighthead competitions are run throughout the country, echoing English cricket’s search for a fast bowler in the 1970s, but, occasionally, it can seem like we are getting there.

No-one is suggesting for a second that playing in the front row is easy. In dim and distant days, this writer’s former brother-in-law broke his nose while playing hooker. That said, he didn’t help himself by bringing his own knee up into his face during a scrum while attempting to strike the opposing No. 2 with the said joint.

Fun and games, but let’s return to the matter at hand: what is it with the No. 3 position in Wales? Track back a little over two decades and they briefly experimented with Gethin Jenkins in the role. Jenkins was many things, among them one of Welsh rugby’s finest-ever loosehead props; however, a Test-class tighthead he definitely was not.

After France had dismantled the Welsh scrum in Cardiff, Charlie Faulkner – he of Pontypool front-row fame – even offered to help Wales out free of charge with some specialist scrum coaching. “I couldn’t care if Steve Hansen is on £4,000 a week. If I went in there I could spark an 80 per cent improvement in two sessions – bottom line. If they asked me I would gladly help out for nothing,” said Faulkner.

The emergence of Adam ‘Bomb’ Jones solved that particular problem for the next decade without need of Charlie having to work gratis.

Tomas Francis did a fine job after Jones departed the scene and continues to be in the frame, but the 34-year-old has been rested for this summer’s internationals, with Steve Tandy casting an eye to next year’s global tournament in Australia. With Archie Griffin undergoing elective surgery and Keiron Assiratti a major doubt after picking up a lower-leg injury, Tandy is having to reach further back into the selection cupboard without any guarantee that he will find what he’s looking for.

Unearth a quality tighthead and a team is on its way; dare to take the field without one and there could be problems aplenty.

This is not an easy situation to deal with, with tightheads a breed apart. Not only do they need to be super-strong, they also need to be super-stoical in the face of scrum attacks from the opposition loosehead and hooker. The former Wales lock and Scarlets chief executive Stuart Gallacher used to have quiet admiration for Adam Jones (quiet because he played for the Scarlets’ arch-rivals the Ospreys, perhaps), once telling this writer: “He’s a powerful man but he also has the right temperament to play tighthead. He never loses his composure.”

Pontypool RFC’s finest, Graham Price, was cut from the same cloth. The focus he brought to games was colder than the Afon Lwyd river on an icy January morning.

Unearth a quality tighthead and a team is on its way, then; dare to take the field without one and there could be problems aplenty. But Tandy knows all this, which is why he will be saying a prayer or three that at least one of the No. 3s he has picked for this summer offers hope for the future.

At the time of writing, Dillon Lewis, Sam Wainwright and Ben Warren were expected to be on frontline duty for the games with the Barbarians, Fiji, Argentina and South Africa, with Rhys Henry potentially in line for an official squad call should Assiratti be declared off limits after the bump he picked up in Cardiff’s URC quarter-final against the Stormers: Henry has already been training with Tandy’s group.

If he is dreaming honeyed dreams, Tandy will see the experienced Lewis adding an extra dimension with his ability to pilfer ball at the breakdown; he will also picture him working tirelessly in defence. But will a vision of Lewis destroying an opposition scrum pass through the coach’s mind in the wee small hours? No-one can say, but props traditionally get better with age and the assumption is the Dragons man will want to show he has developed his set-piece work since he last played for Wales, against Italy two years ago. Res ipsa loquitur, as they may or may not say on the No. 42 bus to Rodney Parade. Put another way, the truth will out on the pitch. As always.

Wainwright will be on a similar beat as he looks to show he has improved in the pushing and shoving game in the three campaigns since he last featured at Test level. Potential cause for concern? He started just two games for Cardiff last season and only three for the Scarlets the term before. However you cut it, that isn’t an ideal launchpad for Test rugby.

Warren has also been lightly used in run-on teams of late, figuring only twice in the No. 3 shirt for the Ospreys in 2025-26, with Tom Botha and Henry also in their tighthead pool. There has been quiet improvement from the 6ft 1in, 19st 3lb east Walian, though, particularly around the field, but Test rugby is a staircase up and he will know there is much to learn.

Henry is smaller than the others, at 5ft 8in and 17st 13lb, but he and Warren have benefited from being in a scrum classroom headed by Botha and at regional level Henry has been making progress. He can do a job in the set-piece, rarely misses a beat in defence and has a nice handling game. But, as with Warren, he has an entire course of lessons to wade through at elite level.

Not so sweet reveries for Tandy? Think the Welsh scrum folding like a used cereal packet with worrying consequences for the team performance. But, just maybe, the coach will have a more positive mindset. Indeed, perhaps we can say with certainty that Tandy will be looking at things through a more optimistic lens: coaches are built to approach challenges that way – it’s part of the job description.  As Dai Young once said: “When you’re captain of the ship, if everybody sees you looking for the lifeboat they’ll be in before you.” The coach who takes his cues from Corporal Jones is one who will be acquainted with a rugby version of doom sooner rather than later.

Development takes time. People may want the next big thing to arrive from Amazon by lunchtime today, but jumping from A to Z has perils.

Challenging circumstances can sometimes throw up pleasant surprises. Recall an injury to Stephen Jones paving the way for the previously unheralded Rhys Priestland to step in and play a prominent role for Wales at the 2011 World Cup. It does happen. But it needs someone to produce something exceptional.

Can one or more of the heavy brigade meet the demands of the situation in the matches ahead? No-one else is coming to bolster the Wales set-piece on the tighthead flank this summer.

There are several decent prospects for the future, including the Scarlets’ Jac Pritchard, Bristol’s Sam Scott, Exeter Chiefs’ Isaac Godfrey and the Ospreys’ Kian Hire, while the Dragons have a 6ft 3in, 22-stone giant on their books in Codi Purnell. There are high hopes for those and for others. But development takes time. People may want the next big thing to arrive from Amazon by lunchtime today, but jumping from A to Z has perils.

Right now, it’s about hoping those on the front line in the coming weeks can deliver. The success or otherwise of Wales’s summer programme could depend on it.