On coronation day, there was no screeching flypast after the first scrum in the Newport v Llandovery Welsh Premiership match at Rodney Parade on Saturday evening.
But maybe there should have been.
Llandovery cranked up the pressure and the hosts set-piece hit problems, with a penalty awarded to the west Walians.
Samson Lee was back.
It had been a long time since he last played a game of rugby — 421 days, to be precise, or, in slightly different coinage, a full 14 months on the sidelines, with the Wales tighthead battling to recover from a ruptured Achilles tendon.
We couldn’t be quite sure why he was on the field in the first place in this late-season encounter. The Scarlets’ campaign was over, after all, with the club’s next meaningful game not happening until the autumn.
Did they just want some end-of-season reassurance on Lee? Or had there been a request from Wales, one or two wondered, to widen their pool of tightheads options ahead of the World Cup?
You would not have thought the second of those theories was right, with Warren Gatland already having five No. 3s in his squad. Also, could Lee withstand the rigours of global-tournament training so soon after returning from injury?
Whatever, Samson looked keen to match up to his name on his return.
He was operating in the city of the poet who wrote: “What is this life if, full of care, we have no time to stand and stare.”
Lee sometimes seems to be a man who would be happy reading that line as ‘what is this life if, full of care, we have no time to pack down for a scrum’.
In pretty much every set-piece over the 40 minutes he was on the field, Llandovery applied pressure on their opponents. Often much of the power seemed to be generated through the strongman wearing the Drovers’ No. 3 jersey. There were scrum surges and also scrum penalties that went the visitors’ way.
Of course, context is all and no-one will know that more than the 45-cap Lee. But, still, it was a useful workout.
There was a punchy carry, as well, in the build-up to Llandovery’s first try, scored by Lee Rees, and another one later on. There were also a couple of solid tackles.
But mainly it was about Lee’s set-piece work. It’s what he excels at.
An entertaining match featured 12 tries and saw Newport prevail 52-33 as the visitors’ challenge disintegrated amid yellow cards late on. Some of the touchdowns were picture-book affairs and many pretty patterns weaved.
But Lee, a fully paid-up member of the heavy mob up front, had cause to be happy about his effort as well, with his return more than a bit encouraging.
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