The renaissance of Dan Lydiate - How Welsh rugby's great gladiator has made it back and the startling form he's showing

A Welsh rugby fan who had been holidaying on Mars for 17 months might return today with three burning questions.

“How is Dan Lydiate after his terrible injury? Is he enjoying time on the farm after his retirement as a player? Who’s replaced him in the Wales team?”

The individual in question might struggle to believe the answers.

Lydiate is fine, thanks very much. He has recovered well enough from the obliteration of his right knee playing against Ireland in February 2021 to be playing again, so full-time commitment on the farm will have to wait. Not only that, but he’s playing for Wales again.

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Seven different back-rowers tried their luck in the national No. 6 jersey during his prolonged absence, but at 34 the blindside flanker whom Shaun Edwards once described as his favourite rugby player is back in the starting line-up. His return to prominence is one of the feelgood stories of this or any other season.

Last weekend one of Welsh rugby’s most ferocious combatants made 18 tackles without missing over 60 minutes. It was an extraordinary performance, with Lydiate repeatedly knocking back big South African forwards behind the gainline. One hit on Pieter-Steph du Toit saw the Welsh No. 6 hold his ground before bringing the 2019 world player of the year to the ground with expert technique and courage beyond the understanding of 99.9 percent of the rest of us.

Yet if we rewind just four months the mid-Wales farmer revealed to this writer over a Zoom call that his primary goal for the rest of the season was to earn a new contract at the Ospreys.

We’ll call that typical of the man: no grand sense of his own worth or