Stephen Jones has a simple response when questioned about why the Lions’ playing legacy from the summer has not spilled over into the domestic game this season. “You come back to a different group of players, different coaches, different philosophies,” the fly half said, and the transposition of styles is not easily made.

Nevertheless if one of the four home unions is able to make that step during this month’s international programme, it should be Wales, who play New Zealand at the Millennium Stadium on Saturday. Four of their coaches, their conditioner and technical analysts, were with the Lions in South Africa as were such key individuals as Jones himself, Jamie Roberts, Gethin Jenkins and Martyn Williams.

“The Lions played a style that suited the individuals who were there,” Jones, 32 next month, said. It is also, to a degree, the style that should suit the Scarlets, his regional team, and Wales. Nor, of course, are the Springboks on Wales’s playing schedule: New Zealand, fresh from beating Australia in Tokyo, will be followed by Samoa, Argentina and Australia and the game plan will be amended accordingly.

But Jones, who is likely to win his 81st cap if he is named today in the match squad against the All Blacks, acknowledges that the strategies and principles of Warren Gatland, Shaun Edwards and Rob Howley are fundamentally those of the Lions. “They want the game to be played in a certain way whoever the opposition are and how good will it be for the players to start the international season against one of the best teams in the world, and in your own back yard?” he said.

“Slowly over the years we have become far more competitive and these are the games that get you going, four top-drawer fixtures against sides who each pose a different challenge, whether it’s the technical expertise of Australia, Argentina’s pack, the footballing qualities of the All Blacks. But that’s test match rugby, an examination of your skills, your character and how they stand up in a pressurised environment.”

It is a theme that Jones returns to in his recent autobiography — subtitled A Thinking Man’s Game — in which he deals with one or two of rugby’s modern truisms. Test matches, he says, are “like a drug. And the positive experiences always outweigh the negatives ones for me.” Since he also discusses at some length the influence on him of Steve Hansen, now coach to the All Blacks but formerly of Wales, this week will not lack significance.

“Steve was direct and straight with me, he told me things weren’t good enough and why they weren’t, that I wasn’t where I should be,” Jones said. But the fly half has never lacked the appetite for hard work — he sees himself more in the mould of Neil Jenkins than Jonathan Davies as the latest in a long line of outstanding Wales pivots — and he accepted the essential truths of what Hansen was saying. “It hurt at the time but it had such a positive impact and I hold him in high regard,” he said.

But, Jones observes, there are not many traditional Wales fly halves left, the jinking, darting player such as Cliff Morgan (honoured by the IRB last week) or David Watkins. “The game has evolved, defensive structures have changed,” he said, “but in Wales we still have someone like Shane Williams and he is priceless.”

If ever there was an optimist in the game, it is Jones, whose international debut came in the horrendous 96-13 defeat by South Africa in 1998. He believes that the Heineken Cup win over London Irish could prove a turning point for the Scarlets, that a talented generation, typified by the bustling centre, another Jonathan Davies, is growing up in Llanelli; he sees Wales back at the world table by right and the Lions series as a success even if the bare statistics suggest otherwise. Now all he has to do is contribute to the overturning of a 56-year hiatus — the period since Wales last beat the All Blacks.

• Stephen Jones, A Thinking Man’s Game: My Story by Stephen Jones with Simon Roberts (Mainstream Publishing, £17.99).

Autumn internationals

Saturday England v Australia; Wales v New Zealand
Nov 13 Wales v Samoa
Nov 14 England v Argentina; Scotland v Fiji
Nov 15 Ireland v Australia
Nov 21 England v New Zealand; Ireland v Fiji; Scotland v Australia; Wales v Argentina
Nov 28 Ireland v South Africa; Scotland v Argentina; Wales v Australia