'He would have made a fantastic rugby league player' - Wales call-up nearly ditched union for league
Jonah Holmes has been getting used to life as a Wales call-up in recent weeks, but if a former coach had his way then the opportunity might have arisen in a different code.
When James Lowes made an emotional return to the Bradford Bulls and rugby league in June 2014, he left behind a talented group of union players at Leeds Carnegie.
Carnegie, with Lowes as head coach, had just come within two minutes of a shot at a Premiership return, a late Gordon Ross penalty consigning them to a 60-58 aggregate defeat to London Welsh in the RFU Championship play-off semi-final.
Welsh went on to seal promotion, but as Lowes settled into his new Odsal office and attempted to save Bradford from Super League relegation there was one player above all that he wished to take with him from Headingley.
“When I got to Bradford the first person I wanted to bring in was Jonah because he would have made a fantastic rugby league player,” Lowes told RugbyPass.
“We talked about it and I was really keen to get him in but I think Jonah still had burning ambitions in the game of rugby union and rightly so… he had his own points to prove, getting sort of let go by Wasps.”
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Lowes admits that the Bradford move was a hard sell, but three years later there was interest from Carnegie’s cross-code cousins, Leeds Rhinos – en route to an eighth Super League title – who considered offering Holmes a dual registration deal.
Timing was not on the Rhinos’ side, however, and once the Leicester Tigers made their own move in the summer of 2017, Holmes’ mind was made up.
“He would have fitted in quite well but the opportunity at Leicester came up and he wanted to take that,” Lowes added.
Holmes had to wait for his chance at Welford Road, not making his Premiership debut until November. But having been on the radar of the Welsh Rugby Union’s Exiles programme since 2012 the Stockport-born wing’s performances this year have been good enough to turn Gatland’s head.
The Tigers player has credited Lowes with helping him fall in love with the game again following his initial loan move from Wasps in 2013. The former rugby league star remains in contact with his former charge, although any hopes of luring him north have receded considerably since his Wales call-up.
Lowes worked with Holmes in two spells at Headingley and while he knew little about him when he initially arrived, it did not take long for his qualities – particularly his finishing ability – to emerge.
“My initial thoughts were just that he’s got very good core basic skills,” Lowes said. “He can catch a ball, he can pass a ball and when he catches a ball he’s got good running ability.
“He scored a lot of s in the both stints I’ve worked with him, and one of his other really big strengths is he finishes half-chances.
“You just have to give Jonah 10 half-chances and he’ll score eight out of 10, easy. He’s very good at taking half-chances.
“He was very inexperienced when he came to us and playing him regularly certainly helped him adapt to the higher level, and you can see that at Leicester this year.”
Holmes’ try-scoring instincts were such that Lowes attributes Carnegie’s slump from play-off finalists in 2017 to mid-table also-rans the following season to the departure of the Tigers wing and his back-three colleague Seb Stegmann.
“We were still creating the same chances the following year but we weren’t finishing them off and it made a big impact on some of our results,” Lowes said.
“Some of the close games that we should have won, we probably would have won with those two there – in particular Jonah.”
Lowes used Holmes primarily on the wing, although he has proved at Carnegie and more recently with Leicester to be at least as adept at full-back. He had moved into the back three from scrum-half during dual-registration stints at Henley Hawks and London Welsh while at Wasps.
“He’s got very good pace anyway, we had other options at nine and he seemed to be better suited on the wing,” former Henley head coach Steve Barnes told RugbyPass.
“He scored some great tries. (He was) strong, physical, he’s a tall lad, well built and took some stopping.”
Holmes is fondly remembered in Henley, where despite his tender years, he made a good impression both on and off the pitch. “He created that impact,” Barnes added.
“He was a very likeable young man as well. Good moral character, good, strong individual.”
Lowes also talks of a well-liked, laid-back and at times reserved character who should have no trouble adapting to his new surroundings with Wales. “I don’t know anybody who didn’t like him as a bloke,” he said. “Everybody that comes across Jonah goes away with a smile on their face.”
But Holmes was so unassuming in his early days at Carnegie that it took his former head coach more than a month to realise that his new addition could play scrum-half.
“I only used to play one scrum-half that year (2013-14),” Lowes said. “We got an injury to our scrum-half who played and while we were figuring out who to play Jonah said ‘oh, I’ve played there before’. So I said ‘oh, right, well get in there then and do it’.
“That was Jonah, he’d tell you something a bit late.”
At 25 Holmes is also entering the international stage a tad belatedly, but his mentor is in no doubt that he can have a positive impact for Wales next month. “Give him a run of games,” Lowes said. “He’ll do a great job.”
Comments on RugbyPass
Well 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..
2 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.
2 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?
1 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 commentsThe Crusaders can still get in to the Play Off’s. The imminent return of outstanding captain Scott Barrett and his All Black team mate Codie Taylor will be a big boost.There are others like Tamaiti Williams too. Two home games coming up. Fellow Crusader fans get there and support these guys. I will be.
2 Go to commentsCant get more Wellington than Proctor.
3 Go to commentsWhy not let the media decide. Like how they choose the head coach. Like most of us we entrust the rugby system to choose. A rugby team includes the coaches. It's collective.
14 Go to comments