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Alun Wyn Jones doesn't need any cotton wool

By Martyn Thomas
Alun Wyn Jones (Photo by Michael Steele/Getty Images)

On a typically grey October day in 2015, Alun Wyn Jones sat chatting to media gathered at a plush Surrey hotel. Approaching his 100th Test appearance, he was asked what it would mean to reach the landmark in a Rugby World Cup quarter-final against South Africa.

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“There is always the thought in the back of your mind that every match could be your last,” he told reporters then. “That’s what I like to go on and I don’t look at any numbers.”

He added an inference that, with that figure including six appearances for the British and Irish Lions, it would represent a bigger personal achievement to compile a century of caps for Wales outright.

Jones is not a man who basks in his own glory.

Subsequent milestones – he won his 100th Wales cap against the All Blacks in New Zealand in 2016 and captained his country to a first November clean sweep with victory over South Africa in his 120th – have in turn each been treated as “just another game”.

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It is no surprise, therefore, that he let others do the talking as he set a new Ospreys appearance record, playing a pivotal role as Zebre were beaten 43-0 in what was his 233rd game for the region.

Jones was described as a “true Ospreys legend” by managing director Andrew Millward in the build-up to Friday night’s PRO14 clash and he lived up to that billing with an all-action performance.

Watching the evergreen second-row in action at present, it is easy to forget that he is 33.

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Jones seemed to be everywhere against Zebre at the Liberty Stadium, putting his body on the line to help force turnovers, offering a reliable target at the lineout, linking attacks in open play, carrying the ball into crowded channels and, of course, shooting the breeze with referee JD Cwengile.

Wyn Jones screams his delight at a Welsh turnover (Photo by Michael Steele/Getty Images)

His experience in that last area is invaluable for both Wales and the Ospreys. He knows exactly how to talk to officials, offering his opinion without ever seeming to overstep the line.

A case in point came early against Zebre in Swansea.

Following a fracas with the visitors’ openside, Johan Meyer, the pair were called over by Cwengile. While the Italian international struggled to look innocent, Jones addressed the referee in a stance, arms behind his back, that was almost intimidatingly polite.

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It is an approach that has been honed over the course of a 13-year professional career, and such skills of diplomacy are priceless in the pressure cooker atmosphere of the Six Nations and World Cups. It is not hyperbole to suggest that his captain is the player Warren Gatland can least afford to lose ahead of Japan 2019.

In Cardiff last weekend, during the post-match de-brief that followed Wales’ 20-11 defeat of South Africa, Gatland jokingly asked Jones whether this would be his last autumn in a red shirt.

That quip followed another modest answer about the emotion of his 120th cap. But if there is a subject Jones likes talking about less than his own achievements, it is his future.

It remains to be seen whether Gatland’s countryman and successor as Wales coach, Wayne Pivac, can convince the Ospreys lock to stay on post-Japan but if he can maintain his current form then he can be expected to try his damnedest.

The Wales skipper has played eight matches for club and country this season, all of them 80-minute affairs, all of them totally committed. If there was a Lions tour next summer, he would be on the plane.

Alun Wyn with his men in Dublin (Photo by Michael Steele/Getty Images)

Jones came up with big plays when it mattered for Wales in their November wins over Australia and South Africa, outplaying and outthinking much younger internationals.

Prior to the last World Cup, he had played Australia, New Zealand and South Africa 36 times with Wales and the Lions, winning just five matches. In the three years since, he has registered five victories in just 12 meetings with the ‘big three’.

Jones credits fatherhood, age and experience for his continued impressive form and the former has certainly been on display on the pitch of late as he has helped Adam Beard to fulfill his potential.

Beard emerged as a genuine contender for a World Cup place in November, and Gatland will hope that he is soaking up all the wisdom his club-mate can impart. The Six Nations could provide the acid test for that partnership at Test level.

Japan is still the best part of 10 months away but don’t expect Jones, a man once described as a “machine” by his former Wales and Ospreys colleague Richard Hibbard, to ask to be wrapped up in cotton wool.

He is a man who demands the best of himself and his team-mates, and if his workload is managed correctly there seems little reason why he cannot continue at the top level for a few more years yet.

Just don’t ask him what it would feel like to go on a fourth Lions tour. It’s “just another game” after all.

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Jon 7 hours ago
Jake White: Are modern rugby players actually better?

This is the problem with conservative mindsets and phycology, and homogenous sports, everybody wants to be the same, use the i-win template. Athlete wise everyone has to have muscles and work at the gym to make themselves more likely to hold on that one tackle. Do those players even wonder if they are now more likely to be tackled by that player as a result of there “work”? Really though, too many questions, Jake. Is it better Jake? Yes, because you still have that rugby of ole that you talk about. Is it at the highest International level anymore? No, but you go to your club or checkout your representative side and still engage with that ‘beautiful game’. Could you also have a bit of that at the top if coaches encouraged there team to play and incentivized players like Damian McKenzie and Ange Capuozzo? Of course we could. Sadly Rugby doesn’t, or didn’t, really know what direction to go when professionalism came. Things like the state of northern pitches didn’t help. Over the last two or three decades I feel like I’ve been fortunate to have all that Jake wants. There was International quality Super Rugby to adore, then the next level below I could watch club mates, pulling 9 to 5s, take on the countries best in representative rugby. Rugby played with flair and not too much riding on the consequences. It was beautiful. That largely still exists today, but with the world of rugby not quite getting things right, the picture is now being painted in NZ that that level of rugby is not required in the “pathway” to Super Rugby or All Black rugby. You might wonder if NZR is right and the pathway shouldn’t include the ‘amateur’, but let me tell you, even though the NPC might be made up of people still having to pull 9-5s, we know these people still have dreams to get out of that, and aren’t likely to give them. They will be lost. That will put a real strain on the concept of whether “visceral thrill, derring-do and joyful abandon” type rugby will remain under the professional level here in NZ. I think at some point that can be eroded as well. If only wanting the best athlete’s at the top level wasn’t enough to lose that, shutting off the next group, or level, or rugby players from easy access to express and showcase themselves certainly will. That all comes back around to the same question of professionalism in rugby and whether it got things right, and rugby is better now. Maybe the answer is turning into a “no”?

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j
john 10 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

But here in Australia we were told Penney was another gun kiwi coach, for the Tahs…….and yet again it turned out the kiwi coach was completely useless. Another con job on Australian rugby. As was Robbie Deans, as was Dave Rennie. Both coaches dumped from NZ and promoted to Australia as our saviour. And the Tahs lap them up knowing they are second rate and knowing that under pressure when their short comings are exposed in Australia as well, that they will fall in below the largest most powerful province and choose second rate Tah players to save their jobs. As they do and exactly as Joe Schmidt will do. Gauranteed. Schmidt was dumped by NZ too. That’s why he went overseas. That why kiwi coaches take jobs in Australia, to try and prove they are not as bad as NZ thought they were. Then when they get found out they try and ingratiate themselves to NZ again by dragging Australian teams down with ridiculous selections and game plans. NZ rugby’s biggest problem is that it can’t yet transition from MCaw Cheatism. They just don’t know how to try and win on your merits. It is still always a contest to see how much cheating you can get away with. Without a cheating genius like McCaw, they are struggling. This I think is why my wise old mate in NZ thinks Robertson will struggle. The Crusaders are the nursery of McCaw Cheatism. Sean Fitzpatrick was probably the father of it. Robertson doesn’t know anything else but other countries have worked it out.

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A
Adrian 12 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

Thanks Nick The loss of players to OS, injury and retirement is certainly not helping the Crusaders. Ditto the coach. IMO Penny is there to hold the fort and cop the flak until new players and a new coach come through,…and that's understood and accepted by Penny and the Crusaders hierarchy. I think though that what is happening with the Crusaders is an indicator of what is happening with the other NZ SRP teams…..and the other SRP teams for that matter. Not enough money. The money has come via the SR competition and it’s not there anymore. It's in France, Japan and England. Unless or until something is done to make SR more SELLABLE to the NZ/Australia Rugby market AND the world rugby market the $s to keep both the very best players and the next rung down won't be there. They will play away from NZ more and more. I think though that NZ will continue to produce the players and the coaches of sufficient strength for NZ to have the capacity to stay at the top. Whether they do stay at the top as an international team will depend upon whether the money flowing to SRP is somehow restored, or NZ teams play in the Japan comp, or NZ opts to pick from anywhere. As a follower of many sports I’d have to say that the organisation and promotion of Super Rugby has been for the last 20 years closest to the worst I’ve ever seen. This hasn't necessarily been caused by NZ, but it’s happened. Perhaps it can be fixed, perhaps not. The Crusaders are I think a symptom of this, not the cause

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