JONES THEWARRIOR RETURNS AFTER TWO YEARS OUT
Cardiff on a cold November night isn’t everyone’s idea of a dream destination.
But for Lee Jones, Glasgow’s PRO14 game against the Cardiff Blues tonight has been a long time coming.
A wretched run of injuries means it’s almost two years since the Scotland wing last laced his boot in anger.
“It’s brilliant to see him back. It’s been 22 months since he last played,” says Warriors coach Danny Wilson.
“We’ve had a few like that. I couldn’t believe when I heard about Robbie Fergusson after the Ulster game – it was his first game of 15s for four years!
“They’re unique circumstances for some of these boys but fair play to them, and fair play to Lee who’s worked really hard and had a fair amount of bad luck with injury.
“He had a few soft-tissue injuries on top of a longer-term injury which put him out for all of last season. He’s one of those fine-tuned performance athletes that pick up the odd thing and he’s just had a bit of bad luck.
“But he’s back and that’s a boost for the rest of the boys.
“He’s a senior figure so it’s good to have him back.”
Glasgow have won just one game of the six played since Wilson took the rein but it’s impossible to be too critical as Covid curtailed his plans before he’d built his squad and injuries and international call-ups have decimated his pool, meaning he’s had to pull a few strings just to put a team on the pitch.
He says: “Things changed dramatically in a very short space of time. The project when I took the job was pre-covid.
“That’s a pre-covid budget, pre-covid international period, pre-covid no release around the international players.
“It’s always going to be tough when you’ve got up to 20 players unavailable to you.
“We’ve had to get a number of players in on loan and a number of players training for free. We’ve just had to do what we can do to get through this period.
“In terms of the performances, the criteria is – is this group working hard for Glasgow Warriors? Is it showing passion and fight, and not rolling over?
“I’m pleased to say yes, they are showing those things.
“But we still need to get results. I know that. We all know that. We’ve had our challenges but we’ll face those and keep fighting to get results and improve.”