Green, green grass of Scotstoun for Jones
HUW JONES will win his sixth cap when Wales visit BT Murrayfield next weekend.
With a name like that you might have thought he’d be lining up for the men in red but Jones, who does have Welsh ancestry, is a dyed-in-the-wool Dark Blue.
His parents both went to university in Edinburgh, and he was born in the capital while his father was teaching at George Watson’s, and he thinks his mum’s side are Scots.
“I’ve never been able to qualify for Wales, despite my name,” smiles the powerhouse centre, who marked his first Murrayfield start with a brace against Australia in the autumn.
“Someone asked me about it at school because Millfield is fairly close to the Welsh border but I wouldn’t have qualified.”
It was while he was at school that Jones cemented his links with the land of his birth.
As the 23-year-old explains: “I bought a Scottish saltire when I was up here on tour with my prep school and I’ve had it on my bedroom wall ever since.”
The current bedroom wall is back in Cape Town, where Jones has been going great guns in Super Rugby with the Stormers.
He went to South Africa in 2013 on a gap year and was quickly inducted into the Western Province set-up, but will swap the southern hemisphere for Scotstoun in October after agreeing to join Glasgow.
“I’ll miss the weather. I’ll definitely miss Cape Town, it’s a wonderful city,” says Jones, who owes his tan and flattened vowels to his sojourn in SA.
“But I’m looking forward to the new challenge. It will be nice to come up here and play different teams.”
Jones, who had options to move elsewhere – including Edinburgh – admits his involvement with Scotland influenced his decision.
He says: “When I was looking at coming up to Scotland, I was only on three caps. I’d rather play in Scotland, be in and around the camp all the time.
“Glasgow got in contact while I was playing university rugby so I knew some of their coaches and they’ve have been successful. I was keen to join a successful club.
“Another big factor was that with Scotland I’ve been playing with the majority of the Glasgow backline.”
Before that there’s the RBS 6 Nations to complete and Jones feels Scotland haven’t played to their potential, saying: “We have a lot to improve on.
“The result against Ireland was amazing but we defended for most of the game and struggled to keep hold of the ball. We gave away quite a few penalties, the story was the same against France and we ended up on the losing side.
“Against France, especially, our decision-making in attack wasn’t great. That falls upon all of us, maybe not working as hard as we should have done and not seeing opportunities.
“Wales can be a good attacking team so we’ve got to be wary of that. They’re a big side, similar to France, so they might come out and try to bully us like France did.
“We’ll have to have a good look at them and formulate a plan.”