Wales was robbed of the rugby legend it should have had but the heartbreak never defined him

“People talk about there being sliding doors or forks in the road when lives take a different course," the Australian writer Michael Robotham once said. "Sometimes it’s only later, in retrospect, that we recognize we even had a choice.”

Ellis Jenkins always knew he had a choice. Jackal or bounce away from the ruck, safe in the knowledge that the game was already won.

“Don’t get me wrong, there are times when I just think: ‘F***! Why have I gone for that jackal?’ We were winning by nine points with 30 seconds left," he'd later say.

But, in another way, it wasn't a choice for the back-row. Not really, anyway.

With half a minute left on the clock, at the end of one of the finest individual performances the Welsh jersey has seen in recent times which underpinned Wales' 20-11 lead over South Africa, the opportunity arose for Ellis Jenkins to do what Ellis Jenkins does.

And with it came one of the great 'what ifs' of Welsh rugby. That last jackal attempt against the Springboks in the dying seconds of that 2018 autumn win would rob him of over two years of his career.

It changed the trajectory of where rugby was taking him, with that performance outlining why he seemed destined for so much more. In one fell swoop, the sport had cruelly snatched all that appeared to be his from the years to follow - World Cups, Lions tours, countless more appearances and whatever else he wanted.

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The story of that day, and that injury, is a well-trodden one. 24 November 2018 will forever, unfortunately, be intertwined with the story of Jenkins' time as a rugby player.

Even in his farewell to the game after a 13-year career, as he prepares to hang up his boots at the end of the season, he admitted that part of him "will wonder what could have been". Yet, it ultimately doesn't define him.

Even if it's the first thing the mind might go to when discussing a storied career that didn't quite offer up everything it deserved, it's merely the second element of a through line within his time in the game that typifies what made him special.

Three matches, all against South Africa, across the space of three years distil his career as succinctly as you could wish.

That day when the Principality Stadium fell quiet is just the second act, the culmination of what had come before, the promise of so much more to come, and then the heart-breaking plot twist at the end.

What's forgotten, understandably, about that day is that, 130 days prior, Sam Warburton had announced his retirement from the game. Now, up until that fateful last breakdown, it felt like the man known as 'Simba' at the Arms Park was ascending to the throne as the successor to Welsh rugby's own Lion King on the back of this virtuosic outing.

Months earlier, the first element of this Springbok through line had brought about another milestone. With just six caps under his belt, Jenkins was handed the captaincy for the clash with South Africa in Washington.

June 2, 2018. It was just his second start for Wales, yet it felt right. His career had been building to this very moment.

At Cardiff, he'd risen through the ranks of a packed back-row contingent. The likes of Luke Hamilton and Thomas Young had been up-and-coming prospects, Josh Navidi was as consistent a performer as you could find and Warburton was one of the world's finest opensides.

And yet, from his debut in 2011, Jenkins gradually established himself as one of Cardiff's key figures. It all culminated in one magical night in Bilbao, when Jenkins lifted the Challenge Cup after Cardiff's remarkable comeback against Gloucester.

On the age-grade level, he was part of the Wales U20s team that were the first to defeat New Zealand in 2012. Then, a year later, he was captain as Wales finished second at the Junior World Championships. He'd have to wait until 2016 for his senior debut, but the future seemed bright.

As a player, he combined pace, power and bravery with a vision for the game that bordered on psychic at times. At times, he just seemed to be a step ahead.

A little like Warburton, there just seemed something about Jenkins that made you sure he'd go on to bigger and better things. The way he held himself, that natural leadership, the intangibles as they say in American sporting parlance.

That's why, in Welsh rugby circles, it seems virtually unanimous that Jenkins would have achieved more. It's almost redundant to argue against the fact that he wouldn't have demanded greater things.

They say worry is the noose of what-ifs, wrapped around the neck of peace. Granted, in those dark years after that November evening, peace might have been a hard thing for Jenkins to find on the long road back.

But for those of us who watch on from the sidelines, the what-ifs around Jenkins' career in a fair world don't necessarily bring about worry, but rather a pang of regret of what might have been.

In sport, the hypotheticals of what could have been, those what ifs, are almost a comfort blanket, protecting us against the reality of what was taken. Yet there's a third act to all this, the final through line that truly defines Jenkins.

Three years after that injury, Jenkins was back in a Welsh jersey. Typically, it was against the Springboks.

His comeback for Cardiff had come earlier in the year, with Jenkins showing flashes of that vision for the game on his return as he racked up man of the match performances that almost defied belief. The knee might have required constant management, but it still could remain a step ahead.

A Welsh recall beckoned, testament to all the pain and sacrifice, the dark moments of questioning that choice and wondering if he'd ever return. Yet here he was, in a Welsh jersey in Cardiff against South Africa, having made it back from the brink.

And, with no contact training in the week, he delivered. There were jackal turnovers that bore no scars of what had come before and moments where he knew what the Springboks were doing better than those in green.

Two matches later, he was captaining Wales to victory over Australia in Cardiff. If that's all we were to get, it was enough.

His last cap would come in 2022, with matches for Cardiff being relatively limited in recent seasons, but the quality remained. Even in recent weeks, his outing against Muster in March was as fine a performance as you'd wish to see from an openside.

That he came back at all is remarkable. For all the talk of what ifs, there's a what if where Jenkins retired after 2018. Welsh rugby would have been little bit poorer for that.

The injury that day will never define him, but the choice to jackal does. As does the choice to come back, when it would have been easier not to.

Ultimately, it's what robbed us of someone who easily could have been a 50-plus international and captain of Wales, but it's that choice to jackal, when the game was won, that ultimately made everyone believe he was destined for all that in the first place.