Huw Jones' Weird Route To The Scotland Midfield
Young centre Huw Jones was a standout performer in Scotland’s agonisingly narrow loss to Australia at the weekend. His route to the Scotland team has been unique, to say the least, writes Lee Calvert.
For a large chunk of recent history it has been no picnic watching Scotland’s midfield. Unless, of course, you are referring to one of those picnics where it drizzles constantly, everyone is miserable and your child gets bitten by a horse; in that case watching Scotland’s midfield has been exactly like a picnic.
It’s not so long ago that Scotland were in such a midfield state that they went looking around the world to find John Leslie, then a revolving cast including the likes of Nick De Luca and Graeme Morrison. Sean Lamont played at twelve far too many times to be considered polite.
Sometime between 2012 and 2014 a plethora of decent centres suddenly appeared as if produced by some secret government lab. Mark Bennett, Alex Dunbar, Matt Scott, Duncan Taylor and backups like Peter Horne freshened the air significantly in this area of the field for the boys in blue and the future looked pretty bright.
That was before Huw Jones came along on Saturday vs The Wallabies, scored two tries while carrying for 61 metres and generally put in a magnificent shift. Now things are looking positively blinding.
Huw Jones is a bundle of contradictions. A Scotsman with a name more Welsh-sounding than Daffodil McLeekface, went to school in England then ended up playing in South Africa for the Stormers. As a result, people were genuinely flummoxed when he was called up by Vern Cotter for the tour of Japan this summer, many understandably assuming that he had a distant Scottish relative and was on the project player track.
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How did Jones end up in Super Rugby? After attending the legendary Millfield School, where he was considered by England as being too small to play centre in their school’s representative sides, he went to South Africa for a gap year of work. Deciding to enrol at the University of Cape Town he caught the eye of Western Province / Stormers, who moved him up through their grades until he found himself in the same midfield as Damien De Allende. It is ironic that England thought his stature was an issue but South Africa, that conveyor belt of human battering rams, could see past that to the talent.
Jones came onto Scotland’s radar when an eagle-eyed analyst at Glasgow Warriors, Gavin Vaughan, noticed the Saltire flag next to his name on the University of Cape Town squad list on Wikipedia in 2014. Vaughan discovered Jones was born in Edinburgh and lived there for two years before departing for school in England, and invited him to Glasgow to meet with Gregor Townsend. Jones decided to stay at Uni overseas.
As recently as April this year Jones, was still unsure about pledging his allegiance to Scotland. “It’s definitely an option,” he said at the time, “I am not ruling it out.”
But when the call finally came from Big Vern it was clearly too much to turn down. “It wasn’t too difficult a decision,” he finally admitted. “It’s quite hard to say no to international rugby and I could never just wait around and hope for a call from someone else. And, obviously, I am Scottish.”
This weekend, England, with all of their resources, had a Fijian and an Australian on the bench and a Kiwi as their captain. If a Union the size of England still trawls for talent it is understandable that the likes of Scotland will do the same.
But in this age of project players and residency arguments, despite his complicated path to the top, Huw Jones is Scottish. That is something it seems their fans will be increasingly thankful for.
Comments on RugbyPass
The best outside centre in the world at one point. He will be greatly missed.
2 Go to commentsYip his great for the big moments when needed as a safa really enjoy watching him
4 Go to commentsOne that will start to come up from now on is penalties for back pushes during kick chase scrambles. Very difficult to detect. In Croke Park if you replay the Hendy NH try, you will see Furbank push Porter in the back, who collides with Larmour knocking the ball across into Hendy’s path to dot down. A more significant example was in the RWC QTR final where Arendse pushes Fickou into two other French players for the ball to spill into Arendse’s path for him to gather and run in to score SAs first try. Not cheating if you are not caught and very difficult to spot but with kicking becoming so critical I feel its an area that will referreeed/TMO-ed more.
3 Go to commentsWhat a pathetic little twit Andy Goode is, as if we care what he thinks…..😂
114 Go to commentsFoxy has been a wonderful player for the Scarlets and Wales.
2 Go to commentsNika the Georgian is the best referee in the world at the moment. Luckily we will be spared the shite SH refs and Barnes will hopefully remain retired given how shite and embarrassing he was at the RWC.
3 Go to commentsThis is the most exciting game of the summer imo, as we really won’t know in advance how both teams are going to play. - Will Robertson just reproduce his Crusaders tactics from last year, or will there be a conscious effort to borrow from the Hurricanes and Blues, and from the aspects of the ABs world cup strategy that worked well? - England under Borthwick have put in some good performances playing attacking rugby, and some good performances playing kick-oriented defensive rugby. Will Borthwick try to merge them together into a single all-court game, or will he continue switching between different approaches depending on the strengths and weaknesses of the opposition?
1 Go to commentsI’m predicting an aggregate points difference of no more than +/-10pts across both matches this series.
1 Go to commentsI’m predicting an aggregate points difference of no more than +/-10pts across both matches this series.
9 Go to commentsFinals are always tense affairs for the players so I do not expect this to be a spectacle of running rugby unfortunately.
3 Go to commentsBulls***': Ex-England international calls out Eben Etzebeth… Not to his face but from very far away… after he’d left. Checked to make sure he wasn’t in the building.
114 Go to commentsHopefully this will mean a new Auckland league team to support in the west. Big Warriors fan but it’s very, very stale on that front and I’d like the option of another team if it was to watch league again. League needs to step up BIG time if its to get anywhere, another AK team and something from the capitol or south is a must for the game.
3 Go to commentsGood, deep interview, nice job Frankie!
1 Go to commentsNRL players don’t have anywhere near the number of Tests. Some people would be happy having Rest Homes full if 40 yo ex-players walking, or hobbling more like it, into walls. It’s just a game!
4 Go to commentsNOW Razor is worried about ABs getting injured or overplayed! Didn’t bother him last year. He happily played his AB Crusaders.
4 Go to commentsWhat is the World Rugby U20 players born year.
2 Go to commentsMuch like the Chiefs finally gave up waiting for Atu Moli to ever not be injured, you have to wonder if the Chiefs and Crusaders will let Josh Lord and Ethan Blackadder go next season. They’re being well paid to sit in the injury ward every year. Better off putting those funds towards someone who might actually play.
7 Go to commentsShowed better basic skills than some nz Super sides, who probably would have botched some of those backline moves. This tournament really is too short though. Needs more teams, or have them play two rounds to properly prepare them for the near full-time NH U20 sides.
4 Go to commentsGood grief it’s only six months. Probably just upset it’s not an established kiwi entering their prime they can “project” into green to join the rest.
3 Go to commentsGood player but far from being best in the world. That's an exaggeration. Perhaps Best in world by Northern Hemisphere standards and biasis but certainly not Southern Hemi standards
4 Go to comments