The 19-year-old Scarlets wing has not looked back since bagging two tries on his international debut against South Africa and he took last year’s World Cup by storm, adding three scores to his tally to guide Wales into the last four and a tip-tackle away from the final.

Wales’ two Six Nations matches so far – victories against Ireland and Scotland – have seen North’s stock continue to rise.

In Dublin he was devastating and scored his tenth international try while in Cardiff he was colossal before limping off with an ankle injury.

He’s made just 18 senior international appearances but already comparisons range from Jonah Lomu to countryman and Wales record try scorer Shane Williams – despite the nine-inch height difference.

And Jones, who skippered Wales against Scotland but was moved to the bench for the clash with England believes North’s sizeable shoulders can burden the growing weight of expectation.

“George’s rise has been nothing short of astonishing, put it this way, we would rather have in our team than ever have to play against him,” said Jones, who missed out on an early victory over Saturday rival Tom Croft in three competitions to launch SSErugby.com.

“He’s still only 19 years old but sometimes it’s hard to remember that because it feels like he has been around for such a long time. We can’t call him a young boy can we? He’s a young big boy I suppose.

“His game is evolving all the time which is a scary thought, but in terms of his international career I think it’s fair to say that he has hit the ground running.

“And I think that’s a growing pattern in the game, no longer can youngster come into a side and feel their way, they come in and start contributing straight away and George has certainly done that.

“He’s certainly got the talent and all the tools to go down in history, let’s just hope he carries on the way he has started his international career.”

Should North continue at his current try-scoring rate he is sure to eclipse Williams’ national record of 58 – indeed the diminutive winger has even said so himself.

But Jones believes comparing North with Williams is unfair on the Welsh prodigy, insisting North is making a name all for himself.

He added: “Shane Williams is one of those iconic players for Wales, a player of his generation, so it’s not fair to be making comparisons between two, they’re not that similar anyway to look at!

“They’re very different players who deserve to be judged on their own merits; George North will be remembered as George North when his career is over.

“But this is what happens in Wales, we can easily get carried away when the truth is George is still very young and anything can happen in the game of rugby.”

Ryan Jones is a brand ambassador for SWALEC. To check out Ryan going head to head against England’s star flanker Tom Croft in a series of three video challenges, head to www.swalec.co,uk/rugby and see who wins!