'The worst thing you can say to him is that he can't do something'
Ospreys head coach Toby Booth has said that Alun Wyn Jones has “ticked off a lot of boxes” in his recovery from a shoulder injury. Jones is continuing his rehabilitation in the Wales camp this week. He has not played for four months. He was hurt while captaining Wales in their Autumn Nations Series opener against New Zealand and subsequently underwent two operations.
Wales conclude their Guinness Six Nations campaign with home games against title favourites France on Friday week, followed by Italy eight days later. Lock Jones has not been added to the Wales squad, and no comeback appearance has yet been confirmed, but Booth reported that the 36-year-old continues making encouraging progress.
“He has ticked off a lot of boxes,” Booth said. “His scan results were very positive. He needs to do different aspects of training, and not necessarily team preparation.
“They [Wales] are in a fallow week and we are preparing a team (for a United Rugby Championship game on Sunday), so it makes sense in terms of being able to pull him in and out of parts of sessions, instead of just exposing him. We are in constant dialogue with their medical and strength and conditioning teams.
“We need a joined-up approach on a lot of what we do, and this is a good example of that. He is there for this week, and we will see how he presents at the end of the week and where that takes us after that. He is not available for us, he’s not quite ready, but we are all contributing a part to getting him back on the pitch.”
Asked if he expected Jones’ first game back to be for the Ospreys or Wales, Booth added: “It’s what is right for the player, and whether it fits. “If he ticks off boxes, then he will want to play a part in the next available game. Whether that’s internationally or for us – common sense would probably say it’s for us – but these things don’t work out with the way the season is structured, so you have to wait and see. The one thing I have learnt about Al is that the worst thing you can say to him is that he can’t do something because he will go out of his way to prove you wrong.”
Jones, apart from the New Zealand game, and his fellow British and Irish Lions such as George North, Leigh Halfpenny, Ken Owens, Justin Tipuric and Josh Navidi have been unavailable to Wales head coach Wayne Pivac this season because of injury. Flanker Navidi, who has been sidelined by a shoulder problem, could return in Cardiff’s URC appointment with Ulster in Belfast on Friday.
Booth, meanwhile, says that North is “very close” after a lengthy recovery process from a knee injury. “After being out for so long, it is important that we do the right thing for George and for the team,” he said. “He is probably going to miss out this weekend. We need to get more training under his belt before we put him in because once he is out there we can’t control it.
“We have to make sure he has had enough volume, so as not to expose himself to further injury. He is very close. He has been out training with us in team sessions, so it’s just about backing up a complete week, maybe two complete weeks. In an ideal world, when you have been long-term injured, you really need at least a couple of full weeks to understand exactly where you are.”
Comments on RugbyPass
Those are pretty good draws for the two top Aussie teams. I certainly wouldn't want my Chiefs to have a quarter final in Brisbane. None of the top teams will want the Crusaders.
1 Go to commentsHonestly, I am a bit lost here …. Ireland - RSA was (at least in my opinion) perhaps (from a purely technical / rugby-skills-show point of view) the pinnacle of the RWC2023 - almost flawless playing (putting aside the kicking of RSA which was the difference between the two teams), rugby at it’s very best …. if I were a Bok and after the game some Irish lads came around saying “see you in 5 weeks same place”, I definitely wouldn’t have thought of it as being in any way “arrogant”, rather a sort of jolly “if we both continue to play like this, no one could stop us” - besides, few of us fans would have, at that time, been surprised to see the same teams playing on 23 september and 28 october 2023 ….. well, we all know Ireland chose to hit a slump to keep the QF curse alive …..
134 Go to commentsThere’s value gleaned from having an All Black star running and training with your team. How many games he starts (or even where he plays in the backline) will be decided on a week by week basis based on the needs for that week. But the overall learning and growth for all concerned, I’d think, is massively beneficial. Especially for Irish players.
8 Go to commentsSon, whith just " raw athlete “ , you are able to beat “ better rugby players “ by 74 points…. May be England should recruit in athletics….
1 Go to commentsPffft. It’s not a one-way street bud and Irish teams don’t seem to have had an issue taking kiwi players previously.
8 Go to commentsParticularly great to have captain Scott Barrett back after going off last week for the Crusaders. Codie Taylor a real leader and mighty Tamaiti Williams join Fletcher Newell in the front row. Those 2 will make a big difference. Great bench with the likes of Tom Christie, Jamie Hannah etc who are playing well. Should be a great derby.
1 Go to commentsDoes a blitz defence not have a weekness against a well-placed grubber kick, perhaps angled cleverly. All the defence is up and the full-back can only cover so much ground. Thoughts?
28 Go to commentsWhile Iose is destructive in the Canes set-up, he is not big for an international 8 and could struggle against the top teams. With his speed, he could be developed into a seven but, as Ben points out, he doesn’t show a scavenging game with the Canes or make dominating tackles. Sotutu has shown a step up this year and attitude plus motivation seems to be the big areas of growth. Deserves another AB shot imo.
3 Go to commentsNaholo is my only question mark for this side. He wasn’t the only one who had a forgettable game against the Brumbies but he was passive, defensively poor and generally lacked energy. Needs to get a whole lot busier for me. I would have liked to see Sullivan on that wing with Higgins on the bench (if staying with a 6-2 as BeegMike points out on here!)
3 Go to commentsWell, I am sure that Eben said exactly what he meant to say, exactly how he meant to say it. Does he strike you as a man that doesn't know arrogance when he sees it. He should know it because he has shaken the arrogance out of many foes before.
134 Go to commentsPls get it into your thick arrogant heads that the final was played by two Southern Hemisphere teams. The best against the best and that Argentina was just unlucky otherwise non of the Northetn Hemisphere teams would have seen the light of day.
134 Go to commentsAs long as New Zealand youth are involved in sport they are passionate for, and are well supported, it’s all good. I love league as well as rugby. NRL clubs have long since scouted the First 15 competitions, the NH and Japan scout super rugby and NPC. It’s a miracle there’s any players left for the all blacks to pick from.
4 Go to commentsI'm a Bok fan, so I don't say this lightly, but he is one of my all time favourite players. I am really going to miss watching him play. Thanks for many great memories. You are a true legend of the game.
3 Go to commentsBest way to deal with all of this is to play another game.
134 Go to commentsIt’s 12-15 games Luke. Ringrose has barely played in 2024 and Henshaw and Keenan have also been out for spells in the same time period. There are always injuries and for younger players to play with the likes of Barrett will be great for them. It’s just looking for negatives where there are none.
8 Go to commentsAndy Goode pushing his own agenda with very dubious considerations on refereeing performances. Luke Pearce speaking a bit of French doesn’t make him a good and adequate referee for the Champions Cup final; his latest refereeing performance in particular was not so great.
4 Go to commentsJordie knows that he has to earn the right to put on the jersey, whatever that jersey might be.
8 Go to commentsThe best outside centre in the world at one point. He will be greatly missed.
3 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.
4 Go to comments