Alun Wyn Jones doesn't need any cotton wool
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.
“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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Comments on RugbyPass
Wow, that’s incredible. Great for rugby.
1 Go to commentsYou probably read that parling is going to coach the wallaby lineout but if not before now you have.
14 Go to commentsIf someone like Leo Cullen was in O’Gara’s place I don’t hear Boo-ing. It’s not just that La Rochelle has hurt Leinster and O’Gara is their Irish boss. It’s the needle that he brings and the pantomime activity before the game around pretending that Munster were supporting LaRochelle just because O’Gara is from Cork. That’s dividing Irish provinces just to get an advantage for his French Team. He can F*ck right off with that. BOOOOO! (but not while someone is lying injured)
1 Go to commentsDid the highlanders party too hard before the game? They were the pits.
1 Go to commentsWhat a player! Not long until he’s in the England side, surely?
2 Go to commentsHe seems to have the same aura as Marcus Smith - by which I mean he’s consistently judged as if he’s several years younger than he actually is. Mngomezulu has played 24 times for the Stormers. When Pollard was his age he had played 24 times for South Africa! He has more time to develop, but he has also had time to do some developing already, and he hasn’t demonstrated nearly as much talent in that time as one would expect. If he is a generational talent, then it must be a pretty poor generation.
4 Go to commentsThe greatest Springbok coach of all time is entirely on the money. Rassie and Jacques have given the south african public a great few years, but the success of the springbok selection policy will need to be judged in light of what comes next. The poor condition that the provincial system is currently in doesn’t bode well for the next few years of international rugby, and the insane 2026 schedule that the Boks have lined up could also really harm both provincial and international consistency.
16 Go to commentsJake White is a brilliant coach and a master in the press. This is another masterclass in media relations and PR but its also a very narrow view with arguments that dont always hold water. White wants his team to win, he wants the best players in SA and wants his team competitive. You however have to face up to the reality of a poor exchange rate and big clubs with big budgets. SA Rugby cant compete and unless it can find more money SA players will keep leaving regardless of Springbok eligibility and this happened in 2015 - 2017. Also rugby is not cricket. Cricket has 3 formats and T20 cricket is where the money is at. When it comes to club vs country the IPL is king but that wont happen because the international calendar does not clash with the club calendar in rugby. So the argument about rugby going down the same path as cricket is really a non-starter
16 Go to commentsNZ rugby seem not to have learnt anything from professional rugby. Super rugby was dying and SA left before they died with the competition. SA rugby did a u turn on their approach to international players playing overseas and such players are now selected for Bok teams. As much as each country would love to retain their players playing in local competitions, this is the way the world is evolving my friends. Move with it or stay 20 years behind the times. One more thing. NZ rugby hierarchy think they are the big cheese. Take a more humble approach guys. You do not seem to have your players best interests at heart.
3 Go to commentsBeaches? In Cardiff? Where?
1 Go to commentsHe is right , the Crusaders will be a threat. Scott Barrett, ( particularly), Fergus Burke , Codie Taylor, ( from sabbatical) etc due back soon for the Crusaders. There are others like Zach Gallagher too. People can right the Crusaders off, Top 8 , here we come !!
1 Go to commentsWe will always struggle for money to match the other sides but the least the WRU can do is invest properly in Welsh rugby. Too much has been squandered on vanity projects like the hotel and roof walk amongst others which will never see a massive return. Hanging the 4 pro sides out to dry over the last decade is now coming back to bite the WRU financially as well as on the pitch. You reap what you sow.
1 Go to commentsWhat do you get if you cross a doctor with a fish? A plastic sturgeon
14 Go to commentsWhat happened to feleti Kaitu’u? Hasnt played in a while right?
1 Go to commentsGregor I just can’t agree with you. You are trying to find something that just isn’t there. Jordie Barrett has signed until 2028. By the end of that he would have spent probably 11-12 years on Super Rugby and you say he can’t possibly have one season playing somewhere else. It is absurd. What about this scenario, the NZR play hard ball and he decides to leave and play overseas. How would that affect the competition. There seems to be an agenda by certain journalists to push certain agendas and don’t like it when it’s not to their liking. I fully support the NZR on this. Gregor needs to get a life.
3 Go to commentsHope he stays as believe he can do a great job.
1 Go to commentsMake what step up? Manie has a World Cup winner’s medal around his neck and changed the way the Springboks can play. He doesn’t have anything to prove to anyone. The win record of the Boks with him in the team is tremendous. Sacha can be wonderful and I hope he has a very succesful Bok career, but comparing him to Manie in terms of the next Bok flyhalf is very strange. Manie is the incumbent (not the next) and doing pretty incredibly.
4 Go to comments00 😍 U
1 Go to commentsSabbaticals have helped keep NZ’s very best talent in the country on long term deals - this fact has been left out of this article. Much like the articles calling to allow overseas players to be selected, yet can only name one player currently not signed to NZR who would be selected for the ABs. And in the entire history of NZ players leaving to play overseas, literally only 4 or 5 have left in their prime as current ABs. (Piatau, Evans, Hayman, Mo’unga,?) Yes Carter got an injury while playing in France 16 years ago, but he also got a tournament ending injury at the 2011 World Cup while taking mid-week practice kicks at goal. Maybe Jordie gets a season-ending injury while playing in Ireland, maybe he gets one next week against the Brumbies. NZR have many shortcomings, but keeping the very best players in the country and/or available for ABs selection is not one of them. Likewise for workload management - players missing 2 games out of 14 is hardly a big deal in the grand scheme of things. Again let’s use some facts - did it stop the Crusaders winning SR so many times consecutively when during any given week they would be missing 2 of their best players? The whole idea of the sabbatical is to reward your best players who are willing to sign very long term deals with some time to do whatever they want. They are not handed out willy-nilly, and at nowhere near the levels that would somehow devalue Super Rugby. In this particular example JB is locked in with NZR for what will probably (hopefully) be the best years of his career, hard to imagine him not sticking around for a couple more after for a Lions tour and one more world cup. He has the potential to become the most capped AB of all time. A much better outcome than him leaving NZ for a minimum of 3 years at the age of 27, unlikely to ever play for the ABs again, which would be the likely alternative.
3 Go to commentsJake White talks more sense than anything I've read in the last 5 years. Hope someone's listening.
16 Go to comments