Legendary prop Adam remembers the day he was brought to book
ADAM Jones has signed countless autographs during a 100-cap career with Wales and the Lions, spanning 11 years.
But for all his pen on paper signatures, none could be as surreal as the one he was asked for 12 months on from his controversial axing from Warren Gatland’s 2014 autumn international squad.
Jones subsequently retired from Test rugby the following January and missed out on the 2015 Rugby World Cup with all his front-row efforts going into packing down with English Premiership outfit Harlequins, where he remains to this day on Paul Gustard’s coaching team.
Tomas Francis was the bolt out the blue call-up to bolster Wales’ tight-head resources at the time and the York-born front-rower has gone on to earn himself 48 caps.
And it was a chance encounter at Exeter Chiefs back in 2015 that still brings a smile to Jones’ face.
Jones, whose Welsh career ended on 95 Test caps, told Rugby Pass: “Just after the 2015 World Cup, Quins were down at Sandy Park and their team manager, Tony Hanks came up to me and said, ‘can you sign a book for Tommy?’
“Now I didn’t really join the dots. I didn’t know who he meant by Tommy but my autobiography had just come out and I’d talked extensively about being dropped by Wales the previous year.
“After the game, I spoke to Tony again and said, ‘where’s this Tommy then?’
“I waited around for a few minutes and Tomas Francis came around the corner! It was a surreal moment.
“He’d taken my place in the side and now I’m signing my book for him.
“It was a bit of a weird one, but he’s a lovely bloke.”
Francis missed the Six Nations campaign with a shoulder injury sustained while trying to halt a rampaging Duane Vermeulen in Wales’ Rugby World Cup semi-final defeat to the Springboks last October.
In that time, Wales have given Dillon Lewis and Leon Brown further exposure to tight-head duties at international level while head coach Wayne Pivac drafted in Sale Sharks’ man mountain WillGriff John into his Six Nations squad.
John came agonisingly close to making his Wales debut against Scotland before the match was postponed amid the coronavirus crisis.
And he’s a player Jones knows all too well since making the move to the English Premiership from Cardiff Blues back in the summer of 2015.
“WillGriff is a massive man. He’s not carrying too much timber on him but he’s still over 20 stone,” said Jones.
“In the Premiership, we’ve been evens against him but we had (Joe) Marler against him, which is a bad marker.
“He’s a good player, a big part of how they’ve got into the top half of the Premiership.
“From his time in the Welsh camp he’ll have had feedback on what he needs to do. A complication is he’s up at Sale, whereas if he was at a Welsh region, they’d have more say in how he develops.”
With Lewis, Brown and Samson Lee also in the Wales mix, Jones added: “I don’t think Tomas will walk back into the No 3 shirt. He’s been out for a while and will have to perform for Exeter. It’ll be tough for him.
“These kids (Lewis and Brown) are young, they want it and they’re pushing for it, if you excuse the pun.”