The Press and Journal (Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire)
Mystery man Jones will learn six nations lesson
Glasgow signing eager to build on promise of partnership with teammate and friend Dunbar
Scotland’s Huw Jones hopes the element of surprise can help the national team against Wales at Murrayfield on Saturday.
The Edinburgh-born centre with the Welsh name, who plays his club rugby for South African Super Rugby franchise the Stormers, is relishing his first six nations campaign.
While the majority of his Dark Blues teammates will be familiar with Rob Howley’s squad from their Pro12 matches, Jones, pictured, is stepping into the unknown this weekend, but the 23year-old hopes it will be the Welsh who will be left scratching their heads.
“I see the fact I haven’t played against most of the Wales players as an advantage as well as a disadvantage,” he said ahead of his maiden match against the Dragons.
“I might not know what to expect from them, but they don’t know what to expect from me. I get a lot of my knowledge from my teammates by asking them what they would do.
“Once I’m out on the field it’s not so much the analysis that goes through my head anyway but more the actual situation there and then.
“I’m all for a bit of analysis, but you can’t always predict what someone will come up with off the cuff, so I don’t want to get it in my head they are going to play a certain way in case they do catch me off-guard.”
Interim Wales coach Howley will no doubt have studied Jones’ five previous Test appearances.
He will have seen the budding midfield relationship with Glasgow’s Alex Dunbar: “It’s a fairly new partnership, but I think we are improving game by game,” Jones said of the link, which will be rekindled next term when he completes his move to Scotstoun.
“Defensively we have got a little bit better. We’ve been working hard at making sure we talk to each other the whole time.
“In the attacking side we also complement each other too and it’s gone quite well.
“We get on pretty well both on and off the pitch, so that helps form the bond. We’re training with each other every day right now, so we end up being able to read how each other plays and then react to it. That bond was probably the biggest factor in my decision to sign for Glasgow – and not just him. I’ve felt it with the rest of back line, which is pretty much the entire Glasgow back division.”
Scotland head coach Vern Cotter will have to hope the back line built by Glasgow coach Gregor Townsend can help mask the loss of captain Greig Laidlaw.
The Dark Blues’ tactician and goal-kicker has been ruled out for the remainder of the competition after suffering ankle ligament damage during the defeat to France.
His replacement will be either Ali Price or Henry Pyrgos – teammates at Glasgow – and Jones reckons that should limit the disruption.
He said: “That is the silver lining for us.
“It is a big loss with Greig being out, but the fact we have two other scrum halves who are very experienced is great.
“Henry and Ali both play regularly with stand off Finn Russell at Glasgow so it could be a great thing they have that partnership going already.
“It’s not like we have someone totally new coming in.
“They are both quality players, so I don’t think it will be a problem for us.
“Henry is similar to Greig in that he can marshal the game really well, while Ali has quite a bit of pace and loves to attack. We have players who are used to playing with both styles so it is up to the coaches what they want out of the game.”
Jones expects Wales to target the Scottish scrum, which has creaked during both their opening-day win against Ireland and the Les Bleus loss in Paris.
But he stressed: “The main focus is on ourselves. I don’t think we played to our full potential in either of our two games so far. It was nice to win against Ireland, but we were hurt by the France result so we really need to step it up. We want to improve on those two performances.”
“In the attacking side we also complement each other too and it’s gone quite well”