The weirdest Wales selection of all that went under the radar
WillGriff John has held a few different titles over the years.
Back at the start of Covid-19 in early 2020, he was perhaps Wales' unluckiest player. Named in Wales' side to face Scotland for his Test debut, the start of a worldwide pandemic scuppered his chances of pulling on the red jersey.
Then, for a while, the tag was that he was one of the most powerful men in the Scarlets' gym, with the prop often asked about his strength in press conferences. "Genetically gifted" was how he once described himself.
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Now, having been out of sight and out of mind for some time - having left the Scarlets back in 2023 - this week saw the 32-year-old cast as the most surprising name in a Wales Six Nations squad full of shocks. Sign up to our Welsh rugby newsletter here.
It's some feat, with virtually no one having backed a man who has mustered 180 minutes of playing time for Sale this season for a call-up by Gatland when the Wales coach's job is on the line.
It perhaps speaks volumes about Wales' tighthead reserves. Archie Griffin is unavailable after shoulder surgery, while Leon Brown has just retired.
Dillon Lewis has also had injuries, meaning - in John, Keiron Assiratti and Henry Thomas - Gatland has three tightheads with just 16 Wales caps between them. Even the Wales coach essentially admitted it's not ideal.
"WillGriff John has been on the bench and he has not had a lot of game-time," Gatland told the BBC on Monday. "We are limited in the options we have at tight-head. That is one position that has caused us headaches.
"We spoke about Dillon (Lewis) but he has not been playing, he has had some injury issues with his back and things. It was disappointing to lose Leon Brown and I wish him all the best in terms of his retirement.
"He worked so hard to try and get back but unfortunately the neck problems would not go away."
And so that's how it came to pass that John, nearly four years after his last involvement in Test rugby, is back in the picture.
Going back to his almost-cap against Scotland, by the time international rugby resumed without crowds later that year, John wasn't even in the Wales squad. He would be watching the rearranged match - played at an empty Parc y Scarlets - from afar.
Other squads came and went, with John on the fringes. Called up as injury cover for the 2021 Six Nations, before missing out that same summer for Cardiff clashes with Canada and Argentina.
Then, nearly two years after seemingly being consigned to being Wales' unluckiest player, he finally became a Wales Test player. Caps against South Africa and Fiji in the autumn of 2021 got him off the mark on the international stage.
Still, a touch unlucky though, as concussion against Fiji ruled him out of the final autumn fixture. That would be his lot with Wales, until now.
Two years at the Scarlets proved fairly ineffective for John in furthering his Test hopes. In his two seasons there, he managed just over 600 minutes of rugby in Llanelli.
Having left Sale to ply his trade in Wales in a bid to further his Test cause, he departed the Scarlets under the impression his international career was over.
With just two caps, he was short of the 25 required to play outside of Wales while still pulling on the red jersey. And yet, because he was not offered a contract in Wales, he - like seemingly many others - is not captured by the increasingly toothless 25-cap rule.
After leaving the Scarlets, a short-term deal with Racing 92 as World Cup cover followed. He featured in their matchday squad just once, before making a handful of appearances for Pro D2 side Montauban.
And then, late last season, he made his return to Sale - featuring regularly off the bench in the side's run to the Premiership semi-finals.
This season has seen him feature less, starting just once so far. That was on the weekend, where he managed 46 minutes in Sale's 40-0 defeat to the Stormers.
