Alun Wyn Jones is a Wales legend and special captain, but 150 caps and the end of Six Nations seems right time to go

There comes a time in the career of every sports professional when they are faced with too many good reasons not to carry on.

Alun Wyn Jones is an intensely private person, so we’ve no real prospect of knowing what factors may or may not be influencing him as he ponders his on-field longevity.

He last answered questions about the subject last September, four days before his 36th birthday, when he went on the BBC’s Breakfast show to promote his autobiography. Jones reminded us all that he doesn’t pick himself, and said as long as he felt he warranted his place he would continue to make himself available for his country.

Having missed four of Wales’ five games in this year’s Six Nations through injury it would seem harsh to form a judgement on that based on the evidence of his 59 minutes against Italy.

Yet the context of his return was more instructive. When Will Rowlands was left out of the starting line-up there was, if not uproar from some quarters, then certainly disquiet.

Welsh legend Graham Price was among those heavily questioning the decision to put the captain straight back in, with no Ospreys game time behind him, at the expense of Rowlands who he felt was Wales' best and most improved player of the Six Nations and a top ball carrier.

In fact, there were enough cries of foul on behalf of the hitherto excellent Rowlands to prompt Wayne Pivac to spell out his reasoning behind the decision to bring back Jones. It was no slight on Rowlands, he stressed, but the Dragons man had played a lot of rugby and would therefore ‘finish’ the game against the Azzurri rather than start it. That privilege, said the Kiwi coach, was being handed back to the former captain.

Wherever you stood on the decision, the fact it was such