Wales lock Alun Wyn Jones is ‘the ultimate professional’ – Adam Beard

Adam Beard has described his second-row colleague Alun Wyn Jones as “the ultimate professional” ahead of Wales’ South Africa tour.

Jones has made a world record 162 Test match appearances for Wales and the British and Irish Lions.

A shoulder injury and two operations hampered him this season, though, and he has only featured once for Wales since late October.

He won his 150th Wales cap in a shock Guinness Six Nations home defeat against Italy three months ago, being selected ahead of an in-form Will Rowlands.

Jones, who will be 37 in September, made his Test debut 16 years ago and was skipper before injury struck, heads to South Africa on Thursday as part of a Wales squad captained by Dan Biggar that faces three Tests against the world champion Springboks.

“Al is the ultimate professional, and he is looking very good,” Beard said. “He is always the one setting standards, pushing the boys along.

“You can see the enthusiasm and everything he has around the squad. He is the the one driving it, always chatting, and he is enjoying his rugby.

“He might prefer to be captain, he might not, I am not too sure. It might take a little bit of pressure off him not being the captain, but you just know the leadership roles he has anyway.

“He might not have the captain’s armband, but he is still the one leading the enthusiasm, squad ethics and stuff like that.”

Wales have lost all 10 previous Tests against the Springboks on South Africa soil, which underlines how big a task lies ahead.

And they can reflect on just four wins – victories over Canada, Fiji, Australia and Scotland – in the last 12 months.

Beard added: “I think we work best when we are actually underdogs.

“Going into this tour, nobody has given us any sort of chance to go out