One of Welsh rugby’s forgotten men will finally return to playing action this weekend, 14 months after last taking the field.
Samson Lee hasn’t played since rupturing an Achilles tendon while in South Africa with the Scarlets in March last year.
It’s been a long haul back for the 45-cap Wales international, but the tight-head once lauded by his Test predecessor Adam Jones as ‘a once-in-a-generation’ prop has worked tirelessly to return to fitness and starts his return with an outing for Llandovery in their Indigo Welsh Premiership clash against Newport at Rodney Parade on Saturday.
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Llandovery, who are chasing a home tie in the Premiership playoffs, are just pleased to have the strong-scrummaging Lee on board. You can read here about the club's proud moment that saw three sets of brothers play in the same game.
“He’s looking in fantastic nick,” said Drovers team manager Jo Rogers.
“I had a chat with him last night and he’s looking forward to playing again and is fit and healthy.
“He’s always been as strong as an ox. He’s raring to go.”
It’s unclear if anything can be read into Lee’s late-season comeback from a Wales perspective, but the Scarlets saw their season ended with their EPCR Challenge Cup defeat by Glasgow Warriors last weekend.
Naming his provisional World Cup training squad this week, Warren Gatland pointed to the tight-five as an area where Wales need to improve. The selectors included two uncapped players, Keiron Assiratti and Will Davies-King, among their tight-head options, with Henry Thomas last figuring in a Test nine years ago.
That said, Lee has been out for so long it would be asking a lot for him to get up to speed for a summer of World Cup preparations.
Whatever, the Scarlets will be pleased to see the 30-year-old back on the pitch.
Injuries have had a savage effect on his career since he emerged as a teenager with the Scarlets in 2012.
Barely 14 months later, Lee was making his debut against Argentina, with one of the greatest scrummagers in the history of the game in Marcos Ayerza still on the field when the new boy came on. Lee later described the first scrum he faced in Test rugby as ‘back breaking’, but he soon settled on the Test scene and featured at the 2015 World Cup.
Injuries have never been far away, but when he’s been fit he’s a formidable opponent, with his low centre of gravity and immense strength making him a much-respected scrummager.
As the Scarlet came to the fore with Wales, Jones generously said of the man who was then seen as the former Osprey's natural tighthead heir with Wales: “We’ve got a gem on our hands.
“As much as I’m disappointed to lose my place I think we’ve got a once-in-a-generation tight-head in Lee.
“Hopefully Wales will look after him and wrap him in cotton wool for the next 10 years.”
A lot has happened since, but Lee will resume his career feeling he still has a lot of rugby left in him.
Llandovery team: J. Maynard; H. Doel, Adam Warren, R. Jones, Aaron Warren; I. Hughes, L. Rees; J. Hughes, C. Thomas, S. Lee. J. Jones (capt), G. Evans, O. Davies, S. Worrall, I. Rees.
Replacements: R. Guest, D. Dallavalle, L. Green, L. Pike, J. Evans, R. Wall, K. Jones, D. Land.
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