Jones eager to step in to help Warriors atone for Kings disaster
THE implementation of Super Six may have been ham-fisted, but re-inforcement of the case for introducing a new tier in which professional players can be nurtured was provided in Lee Jones’ account of his experience last weekend.
Coming back from injury, the Scotland winger had been sent back to his native Borders with Glasgow Hawks to play a try-scoring part in the 47-27 victory over Hawick, which broke their season’s duck.
“It was nice, there were a few cheers, ‘well done the Warriors’,” said Jones, who had no complaint about turning out in the club game. He was just delighted to be back in action on a day that saw his fellow Warriors slump to an embarrassing defeat at the Southern Kings.
“I love Mansfield Park, it’s good to get back down the road, get back home,” he said. “It was good to get a run about at the weekend and then I saw the Kings score on Saturday, which obviously is a disappointing result and looking on is tough to watch.”
The nature of professional team sport is, though, that injury or poor performance by team-mates represents an opportunity for others.
So, after a start to the season that has seen the Warriors pick a settled back three – the only change enforced when Ruaridh Jackson came in for the injured Stuart Hogg – that abysmal performance in Port Elizabeth creates an opportunity to impress at just the right time for Jones with the European Champions Cup and autumn internationals looming.
“The last couple of weeks I wasn’t quite fit to go to South Africa and I’ve been able to spend them getting my training load back up and it’s been really good to get a run about at club level,” he said, declaring himself fully fit after recovering from knee and Achilles tendon injuries.
“Dave [Rennie, their head coach] said he was keen to make a few changes after that trip. The boys had been away for two weeks, some guys have played four games on the bounce; four tough games so he was always going to make a few changes.
“It underlines the fact that when you get your chance you’ve got to take it.
“I think the guys are just desperate to try and put right what could have been a lot better at the weekend. All focus is on Dragons.”