Garin Jenkins: In the Eye of the Storm (Mainstream sport)

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Read more: The extraordinary life of Garin Jenkins — solvent abuse, Jesus Christ and a tragic moment I have had HAPE – my blood oxygen levels dropped to around 38% – and it is not a pleasant experience because you know that without proper treatment you will die.” We didn’t know what was going on and were stood there thinking who was going to throw the ball into the lineout.”

I remember Clive [Woodward, England's head coach] walking around the changing room and, individually, told everyone in there that lessons learned that day would help us win a World Cup," says Hanley. Going into the opening game against Argentina, there was much expectation surrounding Graham Henry’s Welsh team, who were on an eight-match winning run, including memorable victories over England, France and reigning world champions South Africa. My worst nightmare had come true. It was a life-changing injury and if it could happen to me it could happen to anyone,” he wrote. My mate John came round, we'd had a few beers, he fell asleep and I think he woke up with his car keys, his watch and his phone all in a pint.In what felt like a blink of an eye, the white wall of English defence had disappeared, Gibbs cutting through a slither of a gap untouched and now in space inside the opposition 22. I thought I'd bobble it just to bring the defensive line up! If you believe that, you'll believe anything." Scott Quinnell, pictured taking on England in 1999, toured with the British and Irish Lions in 1997 and 2001

I remember in the first five minutes of the first Test we had a scrum five metres from our own line – I was apprehensive but we got the shove on them. Henry's side won that too 23-18 but it didn't pass by without incident as Charvis and Pumas prop Roberto Grau received two-match bans for punching.

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Garin Jenkins (right) with his boss, Steve Fouracre. Image: Jonathan Myers. (Image: South Wales Evening Post) The match was poor in terms of quality. Neither side played particularly well, with nerves to the fore. With the game deep into added time, the boisterous Wembley crowd fell silent and, for the eighth time that afternoon, up stepped Jenkins. He also received hundreds of postcards, presents and paintings from the public voicing their sympathy and wishing him a speedy recovery.

Jones was emulating his great uncle Ivor – also a flanker and captain of Wales as well as a Lion who was revered in New Zealand – when he was appointed to lead his country. More than 20 years ago, the Wales rugby team was involved in one of the most violent matches in its history. Among them was Carol Dudding from Gilfach Goch. "We were up at 6am to meet at the Copthorne Hotel in Cardiff," she recalls, sitting next to her son Gareth, who was then 13 years old and the match mascot at Wembley.He continues: “I’ve had a foot in both camps all my life. Don’t portray me as some sort of vicar who used to play rugby. I’ve hurt and offended a lot of people. Like I say, I’m a work in progress. Gibbsy's a good friend of mine and he was putting his arm up and waving, and I was more concerned about him going underneath the posts because I knew we were losing," Jenkins recalls 20 years on, now a member of Wales' coaching staff alongside Howley. The climb is the brainchild of photographer Huw Evans, whose wife Sue was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2008.

Let’s try another. What advice would he give to his 13-year-old self? “Keep going, love your mother and father, and whatever opportunities you have, take them,” he says. Among the handful of greatest players from any of the home countries not to have toured with the best of British and Irish rugby.Although we may never get to a cure for those people with advanced disease, hopefully we will have treatment that will keep them alive for longer and longer. As a rugby player, I was the worst. I’d get down over losses and take things personally, but as you get older you try to be unaffected. I’m not great at golf but I can remember playing a few years ago with a friend of mine, Roy Fry, a Swansea rugby man, and being told: ‘Smell the flowers, Garin’. I was rushing and all the putting and driving didn’t suit my temperament. But I took the advice on board, learned to take my time and enjoy myself, and my golf got better. There is a lesson in there somewhere that can be applied to life.