Wales prop legend Graham Price has floated the idea of a switch of roles for Cardiff tight-head Dillon Lewis.
Lewis is outstanding around the field, strong over the ball and busy as a carrier and as a tackler, but he isn’t as renowned for his scrummaging, prompting Price to feel there could be scope for the 27-year-old to consider a move to the other side of the scrum.
“If you look at him, there are similarities between him and Gethin Jenkins when Gethin played,” says Price.
“Gethin was very good over the ball and Dillon Lewis likes to do that as well.
"Gethin's loose play was his great strength.
“It helps to be bulky on the tight head, like Adam Jones. Adam was a scrummager, first and foremost. He knew what he was about and he became good at his job. He could absorb the pressure of scrummaging against two shoulders, while the loosehead packs down against only one.
“I wonder how Dillon Lewis would go if he changed to loose-head.”
Coincidentally or not, Lewis’ rugby hero as a schoolboy was Jenkins. You can read the untold stories about the great loosehead here.
Jenkins played at tighthead for Wales early in his career and a fellow loosehead at the time, Paul James, did the same.
Such players are worth their weight in gold to coaches.
But the challenge is a major one.
In Lewis’ case, says Price, “it would need to be tried at regional level first, obviously, because it would be too big an ask if he was picked there in Test rugby straight away.
“In my day, clubs were usually happy to agree to requests from national selectors for certain players to switch positions. I can remember Swansea being asked to use David Richards at centre instead of fly-half and they went along with it, and he proved to be a very good centre.”
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