Wales tighthead Dillon Lewis has said that returning to the Wales set up after over two years away has been “amazing” and is looking to fill what has become a problem position for Steve Tandy.

Two years after his last cap and having spent much of that time battling injuries and rebuilding his game away from home, the tighthead prop returns to a Wales squad that needs him as much as he needs it.

Tighthead prop is as acute a problem position as Wales have right now.

Archie Griffin, Tomas Francis and Keiron Assiratti are all missing for this summer’s Nations Championship, stripping away both ballast and experience from the number three jersey.

Into that gap steps Lewis, with 57 caps, a Grand Slam, and two World Cup campaigns, recast as senior statesman and cornerstone in a department that has lost three major pillars.

He knows exactly how long he’s been away. Asked about the gap since his last cap, he doesn’t try to gloss it over.

“It’s been over two years,” he says, “and it’s been riddled with a few injuries as well, which hasn’t helped my case, but it was never something I gave up on.

“Coming home to Wales was a big driving factor in that, just trying to be in the shop window as much as possible. It was always something I aspired to get back into.”

That “shop window” brought him first to Harlequins, then back to the Dragons, and now full circle to a Wales squad that looks and feels very different to the one he left.

The coaching ticket has changed, the playing group has evolved, and Lewis finds himself under Steve Tandy in a national environment that he’d only heard about second-hand for the last couple of years.

“It’s been amazing to come in and work under Steve,” he explains. “The boys were all coming back into the clubs and speaking so highly of the environment and how much they enjoyed it.

“It’s tough to listen to, but it also spurs you on to try and get back up here. It’s completely fresh, new coaching staff, everything’s a bit different, a new outlook on the game and culture, methods and stuff. I’ve loved it.”

That freshness comes with responsibility. In a squad light on specialist tighthead caps, Lewis is no longer the young buck learning on the job; he is the one with the scars and the reference points.

He has started tests in Argentina and South Africa, something that will prove handy when Wales play back-to-back tests in San Juan and Durban in a few weeks time.

That breadth of experience is precisely what Wales are banking on as they head into a Nations Championship where the scrum will be tested by some of the best.

“These things are not strange to me,” Lewis says of the big Test occasions.

“I’m looking forward to that challenge again, and having that opportunity of maybe playing some of those games. In terms of that pressure, that’s not something I think too much of.”

Instead, he talks about the collective, and about the younger tightheads he’ll be working alongside in camp.

“With the likes of Ben [Warren] and Sam [Wainwright], they are inexperienced, but they’re incredible players. They’ve earned the call-up. There’s constantly conversations going on and we can all help each other, so I’m learning off them just as much as I hope they’re learning off me.”

If there is a steelier edge to Lewis now, it has been forged by what happened when he left Wales. The move to Harlequins came in the middle of a financial reset in Welsh rugby, when regional squads were being slashed and out-of-contract players found themselves squeezed.

In England, he found a different set-piece mentality and a different weekly intensity that forced him to evolve.

“It was completely different – the set piece was different up in England to where it was in the URC, and the mindset of how we approached every game,” Lewis reflects.

“It was invaluable experience for me going up there. I loved working under Adam [Jones], and obviously the likes of Joe Marler and Will Collier – you get to learn a lot.”

That stint, and then the move back to the Dragons, has seen him come full circle.

“Dillon Lewis 2026… I just think a lot more mature in my rugby,” he says.

“Going away develops not just rugby, but you also grow up quite a lot as well, so hopefully a more mature player and a more rounded player, but still hungry.”

That hunger has been tested by injury. A calf tear at the Dragons followed a couple of stop-start years, just when he felt he’d “hit the ground running” again. But he is quick to credit the environment in Newport – and in particular Filo Tiatia – for helping pull him back to Test level.

“I’ve loved it. It’s a great club, the players are amazing,” he says of the Dragons. “I’ve enjoyed working under Filo, we had honest conversations at the beginning of the year and mapped out what your goals and aspirations are.

“They’ve definitely helped me. They’ve been a massive part in me being able to come back up here.”

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