As Jane Austen never quite said, it’s a truth universally acknowledged that a still active Wales rugby international unavailable to the national side finds his stock rocketing through the roof and then a bit more.
Well, perhaps that’s not always the case.
But plenty will be familiar with the narrative of Wales going on a losing run and voices in rugby clubs from Llandudno to Llanelli lamenting the absence of those who are beyond the reach of the selectors for whatever reasons.
And so to Tomas Francis, a Six Nations title winner in 2019 and 2021, with the first of those triumphs turned into a Grand Slam.
To say Wales have missed him since the last World Cup is to stray into understatement-of-the-decade territory.
The tighthead hasn’t retired from the Test scene and at 32 is enjoying his peak years as a prop. He is also game-hardened having banged in a season playing in France’s PRO D2, a tier that is as far removed from being a picnic for a front-row forward as it is possible to be, what with 14 Georgian props, all of whom were presumably fluent in the language of scrummaging prior to leaving nursery school, among the imports who will be plying their trade in the competition in 2024-25.
Francis helped Provence Rugby finish top of the division in the regular season last term. They may have missed out on promotion to the Top 14 after losing in the play-offs to Grenoble, but no one blamed their Welsh recruit. Throughout the campaign he did what Les Noirs brought him to the south-east of France to do, namely anchor their set-piece and help solidify the club’s forward platform.
Meantime, Wales have endured problems in the pushing and shoving game, with four different starters at No. 3 over the past eight Tests, all of which have been lost. Unsurprisingly, there have been calls for Francis to be summoned, with the WalesOnline website referring to the 6ft 1in, 19st 10lb former Osprey in a recent headline as “the one player Warren Gatland simply must recall this autumn”.
Of course, if there was a crisis and Wales didn’t have other tightheads and needed me, then that would be something to think about, but I don’t expect that to happen as they are developing some youngsters, and I’m not sure Wales want it to happen, anyway
So, is such a scenario likely to play out?
Let Francis answer that question.
“I’ve been open with Wales,” he says. “I’ve never retired from Test rugby and I never will retire, but I’ve moved my family to France and I want to spend my time with them while I’m here. If I’m going back to Wales to play, then they’d be stuck in France on their own for weeks on end and that wouldn’t be fair.
“When I came out here, I just thought I needed to be with my wife and two daughters if they were to settle, and I needed to fully buy into the club and everything to do with the rugby so I could give the move my best shot.
“So that’s the position. Of course, if there was a crisis and Wales didn’t have other tightheads and needed me, then that would be something to think about, but I don’t expect that to happen as they are developing some youngsters, and I’m not sure Wales want it to happen, anyway.
“The way things stand I’m going to see out my contract with my full focus on the club. After that, who knows?
“Wales are trying to develop depth and I think they are right to do so. Me and ‘Dils’ (Dillon Lewis) started the majority of matches at tighthead after 2015. I miss it, of course I do, and I want to play, but being away from international rugby and just focusing on the club scene has refreshed my body.
“I think I’ll have a few years left in me when I finish this contract, and if I’m still good enough and Wales need me, I’ll be there. I’ll put my hand up.”
Francis has two years left on his deal with Provence. England took a 36-year-old Dan Cole to the last World Cup, while a 37-year-old WP Nel figured for Scotland in the same tournament and the Springboks trio of Frans Malherbe, Steven Kitshoff and Vincent Kock are all older than Francis and still going strong. There is a decent chance, then, that Francis himself will still have plenty to offer when the next World Cup kicks into gear in 2027.
I’ve run a quicker Bronco time than I ran before the World Cup. That’s the standard. I’m not getting out of shape.
For now, he is savouring the experience of playing in a league that has been called rugby’s ‘craziest’, with its weekly dramas, shock results, brilliant tries, red cards, occasional chaos off the field and frequent late twists. Blink and you’ll miss something.
The standard is also good, with next-generation players featuring as well as household names playing out their careers. Francis certainly doesn’t believe his game has gone backwards playing in French rugby’s second tier – quite the reverse.
“You are playing 30-odd games a year against scrummagers who are as tough as you’ll find in any league, with dark arts in every match,” he says. “So I don’t see being here as weakening my game.
“I’ve run a quicker Bronco time than I ran before the World Cup. That’s the standard. I’m not getting out of shape.
“Even guys who operate in the Top 14 say that in many ways our league can be harder for props. Everyone you come up against is good.
“Right now, I’m just playing rugby, which is why I fell in love with the sport in the first place and why I started as a kid. I know lifting weights and training is important, but so is getting out on the field. You just get to play out here, in front of mad crowds. You go away and there are bands playing, flares going off, clouds of smoke and everything else you’d expect at a rugby match in France, and that’s the second division.
“Don’t get me wrong: it’s not all glitz and glamour. You play Brive away and there’s a 10-hour bus trip home, arriving back at 8am. But then you have the Sunday free with your family, because the club don’t expect you to train after that. Every five weeks you have time off, while you also have a two-week break for Christmas. And the club are going from strength to strength.
“Denis [Philipon], the owner, has built it from the bottom up. He owns the Voyage Prive Group, and everything at the club is state of the art. There’s a restaurant on site and the training facilities are outstanding. It’s an amazing place and there are big ambitions.
“The goal for us is to make the Top 14. We finished top in the regular season last year but lost to Grenoble in the play-offs, with Sam Davies teaching us a lesson. He had time and space in backfield, and you know Sam: he has the ball on a string and if you give him time and space, he’ll cause anyone problems.
“The league is getting harder. George North is here now, Courtney Lawes is at Brive, Jonny May is at Angouleme, Christian Judge has gone to Beziers, while Ross Moriarty is doing well at Brive and Sam had a big campaign with Grenoble. It’s a very competitive league, but that’s what everyone wants.
“It’s brilliant to be a part of. I’m enjoying it hugely.”
I had an offer on the table from Provence and just felt I had to take it: three years, job stability, a new experience. Ospreys agreed and let me go. That was good of them, because they didn’t have to, and we moved as a family.
Welsh rugby’s well-documented challenges played a significant part in Francis’ decision to head south, with the regions having to reduce their budgets. Francis says the Ospreys were understanding of his circumstances and made no attempt to stand in his way. “I’m grateful to them for letting me go. When I joined from Exeter, the plan was to stay in Wales permanently, because my wife is from Cardiff and we intended to go back and set up a home.
“But all that’s going on in Welsh rugby forced my hand. I had another year left on my contract but I spoke to Ospreys and said: ‘At the end of this season, what’s the situation? What’s the best you guys can do for me, given the current situation?’ They went: ‘Look, we can only do this.’
“I had an offer on the table from Provence and just felt I had to take it: three years, job stability, a new experience. Ospreys agreed and let me go. That was good of them, because they didn’t have to, and we moved as a family.
“Everything fell into place at the right time.”
It seems a lifetime ago since Francis broke into the Wales set-up as a raw 22-year-old who had been playing in the front row for the second team at Leeds University a few years earlier, enjoying the social side of the game.
A season with Exeter Chiefs via spells at Doncaster and London Scottish accelerated his progress, but stepping onto the international scene at such a young age was still a shock to the system, not least because the Wales set-up of that era had a core of players boasting galleons of Test know-how.
It certainly wasn’t a place for fragile egos.
Anyone expecting too many allowances to be made for youth and inexperience was quickly disabused of such notions.
Francis tells how it was: “In one of my first games, we were having the odd issue and Alun Wyn Jones looked at Ken Owens and said: ‘Tell your tighthead to scrummage.’
I just had to fill the space. I had world-class talent around me. I think anyone could have slotted in at tighthead.
“I joked with him about it later on, but I’ll never forget it. Maybe it’s what you need sometimes as a young player.
“Then on another occasion, Gethin Jenkins stopped a training session and said: ‘If you don’t talk, you can f**k off off the pitch.’”
Call that tough love, as administered by Melon, as the redoubtable Jenkins was known.
But no-one needed to prompt Francis for long, with the player who qualified for Wales by virtue of a Welsh grandmother proving his worth over 77 caps.
But he still views himself as fortunate to have emerged as a Test player when he did. “It was a different era,” he says. “I just had to fill the space. I had world-class talent around me. I think anyone could have slotted in at tighthead.
“People have to understand Wales are in transition now. I watched the matches in Australia this summer and there were encouraging signs. The maul, for instance, worked well and could have won us both Tests. If the pack can connect in the same way at the scrums, then that will make the tighthead’s life a lot easier, because scrummaging is collective effort. Once you have that unity, you are heading in the right direction.”
Archie Griffin held the reins at No. 3 against the Wallabies. At 22, he has much to learn about scrummaging, but he grafted tirelessly in the loose. “He’s a proper athlete around the pitch,” says Francis. “I think it was his first start in the professional game in the first Test, and he played 70-odd minutes. You can build on that.
“Of course, scrummaging is what a tighthead is judged on, but Gats is a loyal man and if he believes in you he’ll give you time in the saddle to develop. If not, you’ve got others like Dillon, Azza (Keiron Assiratti) and Henry Thomas – you have options. Hopefully, those guys can teach him and help him as well.
“How long does it take to hit your straps fully as a tighthead? I’m still hitting mine, so I couldn’t answer that one,” he laughs. “You are constantly learning. I’ve always said that playing is the key for a front-five forward. Play, play, play – learn lessons, go again. You are going to have bad days, but that’s when you learn most. There’s no fixed number of games a prop has to play to really get going. Everyone’s different.”
One regret Francis has over his career is not having been part of a Wales squad that contained Adam Jones, someone he long admired as a player, even to the point where Francis famously asked the most amiable of tightheads to oblige with his signature: “He came down with the A league side with Quins to play against Exeter. I had his autobiography and asked someone if they could take it in and get him to put his name on it. He’s just someone I always looked up to, and I would have loved to have been in camp to learn off him because he’s a legend, the best tighthead of the early 2010s.”
How do you follow an act like Adam Jones?
All things considered, Francis made a decent fist of it.
Wales would be stronger for having him back in their squad, but unless something radically changes, patience may need to be the watchword.
They know they need to develop the next batch of tightheads.
But the hope is we haven’t seen the last of Francis as an international player.
Wales would be missing a trick if they let that happen.
I’m starting to think I will need to subscribe to a French rugby provider to see some of the best UK players!
Lets hope he’s not forgotten and plays for us in the comming internationals as his experience is invaluable when young props are involved ( he’s also not to shabby when playing for wales 😂 )