1
The 'Welsh prop pride' Adam Jones felt seeing Cardiff vs Toulouse
Ex-Wales tighthead Adam Jones plans to share a beer with Cardiff’s emergency Champions Cup props on Saturday at Harlequins after they courageously fronted up last weekend against European champions Toulouse. With 42 players remarkably unavailable through Covid quarantine, injury and suspension, the Welsh region turned to academy youngsters and semi-pros to enable them to fulfil the glamour fixture against the holders.
ADVERTISEMENT
Toulouse eventually went on to win 39-7 with Antoine Dupont, the recently crowned world player of the year, in unstoppable form running the show from scrum-half. However, Cardiff briefly led 7-6 at one stage and their scrum bravely found a way to survive despite coming under the cosh against a monster French pack.
Will Davies-King, the 23-year-old who had just five previous Cardiff outings, was the starting tighthead, 30-year-old ex-Ospreys loosehead Rowan Jenkins from the Aberavon Wizards was the starting loosehead while there were regional debuts for Aberavon tighthead Geraint James and Cardiff Met loosehead Joe Cowel off the bench.
The collective defiant effort greatly impressed Jones and the Harlequins scrum coach now intends to pass on his respect in person following this Saturday’s round two match against Cardiff at The Stoop. “It was brilliant. I have got nothing but respect,” enthused Jones, who spent last weekend in France coaching Harlequins to their narrow round one win over Castres.
“I knew of Rowan Jenkins from back home, knew he had done great things at Aberavon and had been in and out of the Ospreys on occasion. You are not going to come up against those big boys [Toulouse] in the Premiership in Wales. I love the fact that they rose to it, fronted up and got stuck into Toulouse.
The 13th wave of inductees into the RugbyPass Hall of Fame has been revealed, the finest No13s to ever grace the game getting recognised on Wednesday.
Have your say… GET VOTING! #HallOfFame #RugbyPasshttps://t.co/kAZp0oXIlW— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) December 15, 2021
“You could see there was a bit of verbal but there was no intimidation, you could tell they weren’t intimidated by them which was brilliant, and especially the boys who aren’t in the Cardiff squad, you hope they have now put themselves in the shop window so they can do it at this level and kick on with their careers. I am looking forward to going into the changing room on Saturday to give them all a beer and give them a pat on the back because at the end of the day they have done an amazing thing. They have played for Cardiff and had the balls to put themselves out there against the best team in Europe. It’s nothing but respect from me for them.”
Asked what it must have been like for the Cardiff props during the match against Toulouse when the pressure came on and they had to find a way to survive, Jones likened it to boxer Rocky taking on Apollo Creed in the movies. “The fact that none of them would have played at that level, you have got nothing to fall back on experience-wise, they would have only trained against each other during the week.
ADVERTISEMENT
“It is not as if they have all been playing ten years… but when the scrum was marching backwards there were a few little nice cute things they did in the second half and certainly towards the end of the first half as well to buy a free-kick or an option which gave them a release. It was such a tough thing to do.
“It’s like a professional boxer with just five fights having to fight Tyson Fury and when the s*** hits the fan they still come out swinging. It was a bit like Rocky against Apollo Creed in the original Rocky and they kept swinging until the end. That was the best thing to see. My connections are to Ospreys but there was definitely an element of Welsh prop pride about how those boys fronted up against a monster pack.”
Comments on RugbyPass
An on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
1 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusades , you can keep going.
1 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
24 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
24 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
24 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
24 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
11 Go to commentsYes Sir! Surprising, just like Fraser would also have escaped sanction if he was a few inches lower, even if it was by accident that he missed! Has there really been talk about those sanctions or is this just sensational journalism? I stopped reading, so might have missed any notations.
11 Go to commentsAI is only as good as the information put in, the nuances of the sport, what you see out the corner of the eye, how you sum up in a split second the situation, yes the AI is a tool but will not help win games, more likely contribute to a loss, Rugby Players are not robots, all AI can do if offer a solution not the solution. AI will effect many sports, help train better golfers etc.
45 Go to comments