On the field of play Mark Jones was a warrior, a man who never took a backwards step against even the most physically intimidating of opponents.
But away from rugby he was fighting a hidden battle for years, one which drove him to the depths of despair and gave him sleepless nights for the best part of 50 years.
The former Neath, Ebbw Vale, and Wales No 8 has a stammer, which triggered feelings of what he describes as self-loathing. He also claims it was one of the main reasons he engaged in acts of violence on the rugby field.
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"Back then it was par for the course but that doesn't excuse some of my actions on the field," he said.
"I was out of control as a player.
"My speech was awful, and fighting on the field was the way that I could vent.
"These days I'd end up banned and maybe even in jail. That's how bad I was.
"Players can play very hard without being dirty.
"Nothing was ever premediated but the red mist just came over me, and I used to snap."
Overcoming a stammer isn't the only battle Jones has had to take on in recent years, with the 58-year-old also struggling with the consequences of concussion which he insists is a direct result of his time in rugby league.
In 1991 Jones joined the exodus of Welsh players out of the amateur rugby union scene to the professional 13-aside game where he played as a prop.
The man from Tredegar signed for Hull F.C before enjoying a stint at Warrington, while he also won 11 caps for Wales and made a sole appearance for Great Britain against France in 1992.
While union might have been more violent at the time, the impact of hits in league left a lasting impact on Jones, and in the end he couldn't take anymore.
"When I was in rugby league I suffered badly with concussion which had in turn affected my speech, and even made it worse," admitted Jones.
"The last few seasons I had up north I lost count of the times I'd carry the ball up, the opposition would smash me direct in the head, and the rest of the game would just be a blur.
"I chose to carry on because it was my job but it got so bad that I used to regularly wake up in the night in agony, and my head felt like it had been hit full pelt in the head by a cricket bat.
"The headaches were awful, and my speech got so bad I found it difficult to string a few words together.
"When I came back to union I had speech therapy, and crucially the hits weren't as impactful as league was.
"I suffer from short-term memory problems as a direct result of concussion in league.
"There were some concussion protocols back then but it was very much at the players' discretion, and because there was such a macho culture people didn't want to look weak by coming off.
"It reached a point with me where I just had to get out of league, I couldn't take it anymore.
"League was 20 times worse for concussion back then than rugby union because you were constantly getting hit at full force in the head, sometimes by three men.
"Almost every time you carried the ball you'd get one hit on your torso, one on your legs, and one straight to the head.
"I get forgetful all the time, and I've been driving my car somewhere I'm familiar with and just get lost.!
Concussion is undoubtedly the biggest threat facing rugby union today with too many players suffering serious health complications as a direct result such as dementia.
Jones applauds rugby's powerbrokers for attempting to make the game safer, and wants a zero tolerance policy on high hits but does not agree with former players bringing a brain injury lawsuit against the game.
"The key thing is we choose to play, we weren't forced," he insists.
"Nobody held a shotgun to our heads, and forced us to play.
"Most of us earnt a lot of good money out of it.
"I'm all for tidying up the game, like eradicating the head knocks, and player welfare is paramount but I don't support the players effectively suing the game."
If he were in charge there is one law change Jones would make to make the game safer.
"The one thing I don't like at the moment is jackling on the ball," he said.
"To me that's causing more injuries especially to the head.
"It's a nightmare to get it right. If there was no hands on the floor and no jackling there'd be fewer concussions.
"So, I'd like to see jackling outlawed.
"I'm going to get screamed at for saying this but I'd go back to rucking.
"There'd be no hands on the floor and you'd be taking the wrestling out if it along with wiping the rucks where most of the head knocks come from.
"If there was no hands allowed on the ball then people wouldn't be charging head first into rucks.
"Player welfare is paramount, and they are right to have a zero tolerance on high hits, and getting concussion out of the game."
Upon returning to rugby union in 1996 when he joined Ebbw Vale, one incident turned his life upside down.
Jones was no stranger to acts of thuggery on the field but enough was enough in the eyes of the Wales management when he knocked a young Ian Gough out with a haymaker.
The No 8 was called to a meeting with then Wales head coach Graham Henry and his assistant Steve Black that very night.
"After the incident with Ian Gough happened, Graham Henry and Steve Black called me into a room to speak to me about it," he said.
"They asked me whether my stammer had anything to do with my anger issues.
"That was the catalyst which made me realise it was the reason.
"Off the back of that, Steve Black took for me counselling, and then a guy at Ebbw Vale called Bob Jude offered to pay for my speech therapy.
"I owe him a lot because up until then I wasn't ready to attack it myself."
Jones is quick to point out the mental anguish as a result of having a stammer, and the lack of support available to him at the time.
"I had speech therapy as a kid but people with stammers were often ignored and not taken seriously," he said.
"The attitude was very much 'f**k it, he's got a stammer so what like?'
"But if you've got a stammer yourself you don't think that way. Playing rugby I had to invent a new persona to the outside world to what I was inside.
"There were three Mark Jones'. There was the one in the house, one on the field, and the one in the clubhouse.
"The two around the rugby were roughly the same, but the one at home was totally different. At home I was embarrassed, shy, and I wanted to hide behind the curtain board.
"When I got up in the morning I had to really psych myself up just to go out of the house to go down the shop to ask for a bag of sweets for my mam.
"I lived with constant fear, constant apprehension, and constant self-loathing. I was lucky that I had rugby to keep me occupied but others got depressed and went upstairs.
"There are a lot of people out there who have a stammer who have totally frozen, and have fallen into a spiral of depression.
"It would have been very easy for me to go down that route myself, but luckily I had rugby."
These days Jones is at peace with himself, having upped sticks and moved to Qatar with his wife to work as a lab technician in a school.
Jones retains an involvement in the game which gave him so much, working as forwards coach of the Qatar national side but he still keeps a close eye on Welsh rugby.
Wales may have gone through a turbulent period over the past few years but he is confident Warren Gatland can turn them around in time for the Rugby World Cup.
"The players don't go from great to crap in a couple of years," he said.
"Class is permanent, form is transient.
"If the players perform to what their capabilities are then Wales will do well.
"If Gatland has a game plan in place to suit the players he picks then Wales will do well because we have got good players.
"We've lost a lot of quality in the back-row with Justin Tipuric, Josh Navidi, and Ross Moriarty not being available.
"I do think they should have moved on from Alun Wyn Jones sooner though.
"It was a disservice to a legend of the game who has achieved so much but they squeezed him too far."
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