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'Everyone says Quins are soft but we can play tough' - Adam Jones
Wales legend Adam Jones continues to be mystified by the idea that his Harlequins pack is “soft” having clinched the Premiership title last season by showing real mental and physical grit to lay the foundations for the attacking excellence that will be on show again at Gloucester.
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Quins are currently third courtesy of their impressive Big Game win over Northampton in front of more than 70,000 fans at rain-soaked Twickenham – a performance that showed the champions could still move the ball with confidence despite the poor conditions. The work of the pack at the breakdown had Jones purring and he gave them a verbal pat on the back at half-time while extolling his men to even greater deeds.
Now, Jones’ forwards have to create the platform for an away win on the plastic pitch at Kingsholm where the home pack have been scoring driving maul tries for fun. Gloucester, up to fourth in the table, have scored over 75 per cent of their tries this season from a line out maul with the opposition seemingly unable to halt pumping Cherry- and-White legs.
Thanks to the mercurial Marcus Smith, who will be back after missing the Northampton win due to isolation, Quins are seen as the attacking magicians of the Premiership. However, those spellbinding raids – featuring the ball carrying of Andre “the Giant” Esterhuizen – rely on the ball-winning work of the forwards under the captaincy of lock Stephan Lewies.
Calling any pack “soft” when it includes England’s Joe Marler would appear foolish and with fellow prop Will Collier putting in a compelling case for an international recall four years after his last cap, Jones is adamant his players cannot be bullied in a physical contest.
The Wales and British and Irish Lions test prop said: “There is always that question – can Quins mix it? Everyone says Quins are soft but I am sure the Premiership teams (who face us) wouldn’t be saying that and if they do it would be fake motivation. We can play tough.
“I am sure that people expect us around Christmas to start slipping up because of the weather and the pitches and we enjoy opponents coming after our scrum and line out -it’s what you play for. The Shed at Gloucester love to stick it to you and the boys enjoy that and there will be chat back and forth.
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“Will Collier has to be in the mix for England at the moment. He is not old and as a prop you do mature later and it takes a few tough years to come through; at one point he was getting penalised a lot and I can’t remember when he last gave away a penalty in the scrum. He has done a great job and if Eddie Jones and Matt Proudfoot want to call him into the England squad I am sure he would do a great job.
“Will is growing in confidence and tight heads are confidence players. His technique is there and is phenomenal in the gym and outside the scrum he is a good maul defender and everyone remembers his try against Bristol.”
Former Wales player and executive Rupert Moon on:
? Regional rugby in Wales
? Crowd levels
? Club and country#UnitedRugbyChampionship #walesrugby ???????https://t.co/ygYEBZvmMQ— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) December 30, 2021
The key question for Jones and his fellow coaches this week has been: Can we stop the Gloucester maul? “It has been pretty successful and we have a plan. They have gone back to the days of Mike Teague and Phil Vickery and have an outstanding maul which is not surprising as their head coach (George Skivington) is a former second row. He knows his onions around that area and while it will be tough we have a good maul defence and will challenge them as much as we can.
“We have to be disciplined so they don’t get the chance to kick penalties to the corner. The driving maul – once it is set – is hard to stop and you have to manipulate them so that it isn’t set as they want without giving away a penalty because the referee is watching you. It is almost in the attacking team’s favour when it becomes a pushing contest with a lot of angles and techniques, pretty much like a scrum.
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“You cannot touch the jumper in the air and that also makes it tough to stop because their two lifters do such a good job that they give the maul real momentum the next three hitting the ball making it a six versus four at the front. We will give it a crack and are confident of going down there and doing a job and while we will give it respect we are not losing sleep over it.”
Fitting Fekitoa plus big names Joe Launchbury, Jack Willis, Jimmy Gopperth, Dan Robson, Nizaam Carr and Vaea Fifita within the newly reduced £5 million salary cap may prove difficult" ? #waspsrugby #GallagherPrem https://t.co/fx2lyrd0Cz
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) December 30, 2021
There were doubts over Quins’ ability to replicate their title success given the way they came from fourth place to win away at Bristol in remarkable circumstances and then knocked over Exeter 40-38 in a pulsating final. How they dealt with a target on their backs was always going to be key this season and Jones has been delighted with their response.
He added: “To win the first away one this season at Newcastle (26-20) was big and we could have won at Leicester having gone toe to toe with them. You either hate or embrace the challenge and we have embraced it and can still play better. “
Comments on RugbyPass
A long held question in popular culture asks if art imitates live or does the latter influence the former? Over this 6 nations I can ask the same question of the media influencing the thoughts of its audience or vice versa. Nobody wants to see cricket scores in rugby, as a spectacle it is not sustainable. With so many articles about England’s procession and lack of competition it feeds the epicaricacy of many looking for an opportunity to pounce. England are not the first team to dominate nor does it happen only in rugby, think Federer, Nadal, Red Bull or Mercedes, Manchester Utd, Australia in tests and World Cups. Instead of celebrating the achievements why find reasons to falsify it pointing towards larger playing pool, professional for a longer period or mitigate with the lack of growth in other nations. Can we not enjoy it while it is hear and know that it won’t last for ever, others coveting what England have will soon take the crown, ask the aforementioned?
5 Go to commentsShame he won’t turn out for the Netherlands now they’re improving. U20s are Euro champs and in the U20 Trophy this year. The senior sides gets better every year too.
2 Go to commentsWill rugbypass tv be showing these games?
1 Go to commentsWell where do you start, the fact that England have a professional domestic league and Ireland’s is fully amatuer, that they have fully seperated professional squads at Fifteens and Sevens (7’s thinly disguised as GB), and Ireland have fully pro Sevens squad who loan some players back to the Semi-Professional Fifteens squad (moved from amateur for only a year or so) for a few games at 6N & RWC’s. The Women’s games is a shambles, and is at risk of killing itself by pushing for professionalism when the market isn’t really there to support it outside one or two countnries..
5 Go to commentsWayne Smith's input didn't have as much impact on the last final as Davison's red card for Thompson. England were 14 points up and flying when that happened.
5 Go to commentsBilly's been playing consistently well for 2 - 3 seasons now and deserves a look in at the top level. Ioane and ALB are still first choice but there needs to be injury cover and succession. His partnership with Jordie gives him first dibs you'd think. Go the Hurricanes.
3 Go to commentsIt’s not up to Wales to support Georgian Rugby. That’s up to International Rugby and Georgia. I sympathise with Georgia’s decent attempt to create this fixture. But for Wales the proposed match up is just a potential stick to beat them with and a potential big psychological blow that young Welsh team doesn’t need. (I’m Irish BTW.)
2 Go to commentsCale certainly looks great in space, but as you say, he has struggled in contact. At 23 years old, turning 24 this year, he should be close to full physical maturity and yet there exists a considerable gap in the power and physicality required for international rugby. Weight doesn’t automatically equate to power and physicality either. Can he go from a player who’s being physically dominated in Super rugby to physically dominating in international rugby in 1 or 2 years? That’s a big ask but he may end up being a late bloomer.
28 Go to commentsIf rugby wants to remain interesting in the AI era then it will need to work on changing the rules. AI will reduce the tactical advantage of smart game plans, will neutralize primary attacking weapons, and will move rugby from a being a game of inches to a game of millimetres. It will be about sheer athleticism and technique,about avoiding mistakes, and about referees. Many fans will find that boring. The answer is to add creative degrees of freedom to the game. The 50-22 is an example. But we can have fun inventing others, like the right to add more players for X minutes per game, or the equivalent of the 2-point conversion in American football, the ability to call a 12-player scrum, etc. Not saying these are great ideas, but making the point that the more of these alternatives you allow, the less AI will be able to lock down high-probability strategies. This is not because AI does not have the compute power, but because it has more choices and has less data, or less-specific data. That will take time and debate, but big, positive and immediate impact could be in the area of ref/TMO assistance. The technology is easily good enough today to detect forward passes, not-straight lineouts, offside at breakdown/scrum/lineout, obstruction, early/late tackles, and a lot of other things. WR should be ultra aggressive in doing this, as it will really help in an area in which the game is really struggling. In the long run there needs to be substantial creativity applied to the rules. Without that AI (along with all of the pro innovations) will turn rugby into a bash fest.
24 Go to commentsSouth Africa rarely play Ireland and France on these tours. Mostly, England, Scotland and Wales. I wonder why
2 Go to commentsIt was a let’s-see-what-you're-made-of type of a game. The Bulls do look good when the opposition allows them to, but Munster shut them down, and they could not find a way through. Jake should be very worried about their chances in the competition.
2 Go to commentsHats off to Fabian for a very impressive journey to date. Is it as ‘uniquely unlikely’ as Rugby Pass suggests, given Anton Segner’s journey at the Blues?
2 Go to commentsSad that this was not confirmed. When administrators talk about expanding the game they evidently don’t include pathways to the top tier of rugby for teams outside of the old boys club. Rugby deserves better, and certainly Georgia does.
2 Go to commentsLions might take him on if they move on Van Rooyen but I doubt he will want to go back, might consider it a step backwards for himself. Sharks would take him on but if Plumtree goes on to win the challenge cup they will keep him on. Also sharks showing some promising signs recently. Stormers and Bulls are stable and Springboks are already filled up. Quality coach though, interesting to see where he ends up
1 Go to commentsAnd the person responsible for creating a culture of accountability is?
3 Go to commentsMore useless words from Ben Smith -Please get another team to write about. SA really dont need your input, it suck anyway.
264 Go to commentsThis disgraceful episode must result in management and coach team sackings. A new manager with worse results than previous and the coaching staff need to coached. Awful massacre led by donkeys.
1 Go to commentsInteresting article with one glaring mistake. This sentence: “And between the top four nations right now, Ireland, France, South Africa, and New Zealand…” should read: And between the top four nations right now, South Africa, Ireland, New Zealand and France…”. Get it right wistful thinkers, its not that hard.
24 Go to commentsHow did Penny get the gig anyway?
3 Go to commentsNice write up Nick and I would have agreed a week ago. However as you would know Cale & co got absolutely monstered by the Blues back row of Sotutu, Ioane and Papaliti and not all of these 3 are guaranteed a start in the Black jumper. He may need to put some kgs before stepping up, Spring tour? After the week end Joe will be a bit more restless. Will need to pick a mobile tough pack for Wales and hope England does the right thing and bashes the ABs. I like your last paragraph but I would bring Swinton, Hannigan into the 6 role and Bobby V to 8
28 Go to comments