Lions and Welsh rugby star Wyn Jones is a long way from home and the hill farm in Carmarthenshire that he works with his family.

But even when he's playing rugby 8,000 miles away, he keeps in touch with the farm using cameras connected to his mobile phone.

The Scarlets prop, who hails from his family’s 430-acre hill farm, just three miles outside of Llandovery, spent his time lambing prior to Wales’ victorious Six Nations campaign last spring.

Wyn, along with his parents, Emyr and Heulwen, lambs a commercial flock of 700 mules and speckled faced Beulah sheep and runs a herd of 100 British Blue cross Friesian suckler cows at Clynmawr Farm. More recently he has also set up a flock of 60 pedigree Suffolks.

“From a young lad I’ve always liked Suffolks and had an ewe or two,” says Wyn.

Last year, he finally realised his lifelong dream and bought around 20, starting his very own Fforest prefix. Rams have been sourced from Ballynacannon Suffolks in Northern Ireland and females from the Frongoy flock.

A purpose-built shed was erected for the Suffolks at Wyn’s smallholding that he shares with his fiancée, Jeian, which adjoins the home farm. The Suffolks start lambing at Christmas, followed by the mules on February 20 and the Beulahs on March 1.

The majority of lambing is completed before the Six Nations, but to catch any ‘stragglers’ in February and March, Wyn installed cameras inside the new shed.

The cameras were originally connected to the wireless internet at the house, but, because it had quite a distance to travel, it was slow and often out of synch.

Dyfed Telecom came up with a solution and fitted a bridge which sends Wi-Fi wirelessly to a router inside the shed.

Now the cameras work in real-time, with images relayed to an app on Wyn’s phone.

“If there’s anything wrong [while I’m training] I can phone Mum and Dad and they can pop down [to the lambing shed]. We find it works well anyway because we don’t disturb the sheep,” said Wyn.

It has even become the talk of the team. He adds: “The physio team ask if I can show them the app so they can see what’s happening.”

The 29-year-old didn’t earn his first cap with Wales until he was 25, but he emerged as a star performer in the recent Six Nations tournament and has earned his first Lions cap under former Wales coach Warren Gatland.

He credits the farm with helping him prepare for the upcoming games, by providing him with the physical and mental resilience required on the pitch.

Both will be required against the South African pack.

“South Africa is a massive pack, but we know what to expect. The second row, Etzebeth, he is quite a big man and I’m sure he would run quite hard, so he’s probably one to look out for.”