“Leaving out Dennis Lillee would be as unthinkable as the Huns dropping Attila.”
So said a TV commentator about the prospect of one of the all-time great fast bowlers being axed by Australia.
But Lillee was omitted towards the end of his career.
Star power isn’t a guarantee of holding a place in a team, or at least it shouldn’t be.
This week, Ellis Jenkins was cut from Wales’ Six Nations squad and will feature instead with Cardiff in their United Rugby Championship games in South Africa.
It’s a move not everyone saw coming.
Rewind just four months and the 28-year-old was winning plaudits after his triumphant Test return against South Africa. He had been away from the Test arena for close on three years because of injury yet caught the eye with good passing and running, interceptions and turnovers, including a strip on the powerful Damian de Allende. One newspaper called his effort ‘magnificent’.
There was also leadership after he took over the armband from the substituted Jonathan Davies for the final quarter. Putting icing on the cake, Springboks captain Siya Kolisi congratulated him on battling back into Test rugby after his long layoff, saying: “I’m so proud of you.”
After all that, some were touting Jenkins as a potential Wales captain for the long haul.
The trouble is a skipper first has to be sure of his place in the team.
After facing South Africa, Jenkins started again against Fiji and Australia — skippering the side on both occasions — and Ireland, but his influence as a player in those games was less noticeable.
When he made breaks, it sometimes appeared as if he had lost a yard of pace after the career-threatening injury he’d suffered in 2018.
He wore a No. 6 on his back but, as Gwyn Jones pointed out in a perceptive column for WalesOnline, he effectively played as a second No. 7, affecting the back-row balance. This seems like a key point when Pivac has stated his desire for a big destructive six and a dynamic, powerful seven in the mould of Taine Basham.
“His impact on the game was in winning jackals and penalties at the ruck, not as a power tackler or dynamic ball carrier that you want from a blindside,” wrote Jones. “He is not a Courtney Lawes, Caelan Doris or even a Josh Navidi type of player.”
Jones is an admirer of Jenkins but he had difficulty seeing how he could play in a Test back row alongside Basham, short of Wales having a dominant front five and a "monster" playing at No. 8.
What of the option of playing Jenkins at openside?
It’s one Wayne Pivac has shied away from.
The New Zealander has used Basham five times in the role this term and Jac Morgan and Thomas Young have donned the shirt once apiece. He likes Josh Macleod as a seven and also has master-craftsman Justin Tipuric to come back into the picture, while not forgetting Josh Navidi, who has been recalled to the set-up after recovering from a shoulder injury.
Quite where Pivac considers Navidi this week remains to be seen, but wherever the dreadlocked one plays, he usually gets the job done.
So maybe it’s the molten-hot competition in the back row that has done for Jenkins in this Six Nations.
It’s fair to say the decision to release him from the squad has split opinion.
Some support Pivac’s call, seeing Jenkins as not destructive enough for six in Test rugby and not dynamic enough any more to play seven.
Others feel he has too much quality to be left out for long.
What is clear is that Jenkins’ on-pitch intelligence, calm authority and breakdown skills mean he’ll remain an option for Wales, but he is going to need to rediscover his very best form to command a place at the heart of Pivac’s plans heading for the World Cup.
The hope among his admirers will be that he’ll benefit from a run of games with Cardiff.
That’s fair enough.
We also know, after his epic recovery from injury, that he won’t give up — Jenkins is made of the right stuff.
He’ll know that being dropped is an occupational hazard for anyone who plays team sports.
Let’s see how he responds.
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