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Huw Jones' Weird Route To The Scotland Midfield

Huw Jones

Young centre Huw Jones was a standout performer in Scotland’s agonisingly narrow loss to Australia at the weekend. His route to the Scotland team has been unique, to say the least, writes Lee Calvert.

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For a large chunk of recent history it has been no picnic watching Scotland’s midfield. Unless, of course, you are referring to one of those picnics where it drizzles constantly, everyone is miserable and your child gets bitten by a horse; in that case watching Scotland’s midfield has been exactly like a picnic.

It’s not so long ago that Scotland were in such a midfield state that they went looking around the world to find John Leslie, then a revolving cast including the likes of Nick De Luca and Graeme Morrison. Sean Lamont played at twelve far too many times to be considered polite.

Sometime between 2012 and 2014 a plethora of decent centres suddenly appeared as if produced by some secret government lab.  Mark Bennett, Alex Dunbar, Matt Scott, Duncan Taylor and backups like Peter Horne freshened the air significantly in this area of the field for the boys in blue and the future looked pretty bright.

That was before Huw Jones came along on Saturday vs The Wallabies, scored two tries while carrying for 61 metres and generally put in a magnificent shift. Now things are looking positively blinding.

Huw Jones is a bundle of contradictions. A Scotsman with a name more Welsh-sounding than Daffodil McLeekface, went to school in England then ended up playing in South Africa for the Stormers. As a result, people were genuinely flummoxed when he was called up by Vern Cotter for the tour of Japan this summer, many understandably assuming that he had a distant Scottish relative and was on the project player track.

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How did Jones end up in Super Rugby?  After attending the legendary Millfield School, where he was considered by England as being too small to play centre in their school’s representative sides, he went to South Africa for a gap year of work. Deciding to enrol at the University of Cape Town he caught the eye of Western Province / Stormers, who moved him up through their grades until he found himself in the same midfield as Damien De Allende. It is ironic that England thought his stature was an issue but South Africa, that conveyor belt of human battering rams, could see past that to the talent.

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Jones came onto Scotland’s radar when an eagle-eyed analyst at Glasgow Warriors, Gavin Vaughan, noticed the Saltire flag next to his name on the University of Cape Town squad list on Wikipedia in 2014. Vaughan discovered Jones was born in Edinburgh and lived there for two years before departing for school in England, and invited him to Glasgow to meet with Gregor Townsend. Jones decided to stay at Uni overseas.

As recently as April this year Jones, was still unsure about pledging his allegiance to Scotland. “It’s definitely an option,” he said at the time, “I am not ruling it out.”

But when the call finally came from Big Vern it was clearly too much to turn down. “It wasn’t too difficult a decision,” he finally admitted. “It’s quite hard to say no to international rugby and I could never just wait around and hope for a call from someone else. And, obviously, I am Scottish.”

This weekend, England, with all of their resources, had a Fijian and an Australian on the bench and a Kiwi as their captain. If a Union the size of England still trawls for talent it is understandable that the likes of Scotland will do the same.

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But in this age of project players and residency arguments, despite his complicated path to the top, Huw Jones is Scottish. That is something it seems their fans will be increasingly thankful for.

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Oh no, not him again? 2 hours ago
England internationals disagree on final play execution vs All Blacks

Okay, so we blew it big time on Saturday. So rather than repeating what most people have all ready said, what do I want to see from Borthwick going forward?


Let's keep Marcus Smith on the pitch if he's fit and playing well. I was really pleased with his goal kicking. It used to be his weakness. I feel sympathy for George Ford who hadn't kicked all match and then had a kick to win the game. You hear pundits and commentators commend kickers who have come off the bench and pulled that off. Its not easy. If Steve B continues to substitute players with no clear reason then he is going to get criticised.


On paper I thought England would beat NZ if they played to their potential and didn't show NZ too much respect. Okay, the off the ball tackles certainly stopped England scoring tries, but I would have liked to see more smashing over gainlines and less kicking for position. Yes, I also know it's the Springbok endorsed world cup double winning formula but the Kiwi defence isn't the Bok defence, is it. If you have the power to put Smith on the front foot then why muzzle him? I guess what I'm saying is back, yourself. Why give the momentum to a team like NZ? Why feed the beast? Don't give the ball to NZ. Well d'uh.


Our scrum is a long term weakness. If you are going to play Itoje then he needs an ogre next door and a decent front row. Where is our third world class lock? Where are are realible front row bench replacements? The England scrum has been flakey for a while now. It blows hot and cold. Our front five bench is not world class.


On the positive side I love our starting backrow right now. I'd like to see them stick together through to the next world cup.


Anyway, there is always another Saturday.

7 Go to comments
C
CO 2 hours ago
Scott Robertson responds to criticism over All Blacks' handling errors

Robertson is more a manager of coaches than a coach so it comes down to intent of outcomes at a high level. I like his intent, I like the fact his Allblacks are really driving the outcomes however as he's pointed out the high error rates are not test level and their control of the game is driving both wins and losses. England didn't have to play a lot of rugby, they made far fewer mistakes and were extremely unlucky not to win.


In fact the English team were very early in their season and should've been comfortably beaten by an Allblacks team that had played multiple tests together.


Razor has himself recognised that to be the best they'll have to sort out the crisis levels of mistakes that have really increased since the first two tests against England.


Early tackles were a classic example of hyper enthusiasm to not give an inch, that passion that Razor has achieved is going to be formidable once the unforced errors are eliminated.


That's his secret, he's already rebuilt the passion and that's the most important aspect, its inevitable that he'll now eradicate the unforced errors. When that happens a fellow tier one nation is going to get thrashed. I don't think it will be until 2025 though.


The Allblacks will lose both tests against Ireland and France if they play high error rates rugby like they did against England.


To get the unforced errors under control he's going to be needing to handover the number eight role to Sititi and reset expectations of what loose forwards do. Establish a clear distinction with a large, swarthy lineout jumper at six that is a feared runner and dominant tackler and a turnover specialist at seven that is abrasive in contact. He'll then need to build depth behind the three starters and ruthlessly select for that group to be peaking in 2027 in hit Australian conditions on firm, dry grounds.


It's going to help him that Savea is shifting to the worst super rugby franchise where he's going to struggle behind a beaten pack every week.


The under performing loose forward trio is the key driver of the high error rates and unacceptable turn overs due to awol link work. Sititi is looking like he's superman compared to his openside and eight.


At this late stage in the season they shouldn't be operating with just the one outstanding loose forward out of four selected for the English test. That's an abject failure but I think Robertson's sacrificing link quality on purpose to build passion amongst the junior Allblacks as they see the reverential treatment the old warhorses are receiving for their long term hard graft.


It's unfortunately losing test matches and making what should be comfortable wins into nail biters but it's early in the world cup cycle so perhaps it's a sacrifice worth making.


However if this was F1 then Sam Cane would be Riccardo and Ardie would be heading into Perez territory so the loose forwards desperately need revitalisation through a rebuild over the next season to complement the formidable tight five.

28 Go to comments
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