Scotland return is on for Jones if he keeps up form, says Rennie

GLASGOW Warriors’ head coach Dave Rennie is backing rejuvenated centre Huw Jones to play himself back into Scotland contention in time for the Six Nations.

Jones was more like his old self in last weekend’s 1872 Cup first-leg win over Edinburgh — it was his pinpoint pass that led to Ali Price’s try in the Scotstoun triumph.

His performance was good enough to keep fellow Scotland international Nick Grigg out of the starting team for the return match at BT Murrayfield today, for which 23,000 tickets have been sold so far.

Rennie admits Jones has had a tough year up until now, with his bad luck starting when he picked up a knee ligament injury in Scotland’s second Six Nations match against Ireland, ruling him out of the rest of the tournament.

He struggled to find his form again when he returned to action and had to settle for a place on the bench for Glasgow’s Pro14 final defeat to Leinster at Celtic Park in May of this year.

His poor form led to him being left out of Gregor Townsend’s World Cup squad and, only last month, he was linked with a move to the Cape Town-based Stormers in South Africa in an attempt to reignite his career.

For all the speculation surrounding the player, Rennie praised Jones’ attitude when he was out of the side. And the New Zealander coach felt he saw flashes of Jones’ old brilliance in the first win over Edinburgh.

‘You could say that Huw Jones and Sam Johnson are my first choices now in the centre,’ said Rennie. ‘There is not a lot between Nick Grigg and Huw but we think Huw is going really well, and just getting a few games in combination with Sam has been working well.

‘Huw has been working really hard on his defensive game and I thought he was really strong in that area last weekend against Edinburgh.

‘He is starting to bear the fruits of all his hard work and, with

Scotland, I would definitely think he is in contention with the Six Nations coming up.

‘I have been really impressed with Huw’s attitude. He is engaged and contributing massively to reviews and discussions. He has worked really hard on areas of the game that we have talked a lot about and I think he is making really good decisions with the ball in hand.

‘To his credit, and similarly with the other guys who missed out on World Cup selection, it is our job to put an arm round them and get them back into things. To Huw’s credit, he has worked really hard and we think he is in a good place, so we are keen to put them back out there again this week.’ Rennie has made four changes to his starting team for the derby with just one change coming in the pack.

The vastly experienced Oli Kebble comes in at loose-head prop for Aki Seiuli, with Fraser Brown at hooker, and last weekend’s man-of-the-match Zander Fagerson continuing at tighthead prop. Jonny Gray and Scott Cummings are once again selected in the second row with flankers Rob Harley and Callum Gibbins either side of No8 Ryan Wilson.

After his try-scoring impact at Scotstoun, scrum-half Ali Price is promoted to the starting team ahead of George Horne to link-up with fly-half Adam Hastings.

Johnson and Jones continue together in the centre. DTH van der Merwe and Ratu Tagive replace Kyle Steyn and Tommy Seymour, who is ruled out due to concussion, on the wings.

Ruaridh Jackson retains the full-back shirt for a second successive match.