‘I definitely feel I’ve got more to give’ - Why we could see the best version of Huw Jones during the Six Nations
Huw Jones will start at 13 for Scotland in Cardiff
©Scottish Rugby/SNS
We often hear that front-rowers become better after the age of 30 and are just hitting their peak then, but the good news for Scotland supporters is that centre Huw Jones believes his best is yet to come having recently reached the milestone age.
Look back on many of Scotland’s best moments, certainly in attack, over the last few years and Jones is invariably involved in them.
When he burst onto the international scene in 2016, he just could not stop scoring tries while his passing and angles of running got fans out of their seats at Murrayfield.
He scored 10 tries in his first 14 Tests, including two in a famous victory over England in 2018.
Now a veteran of 43 caps, not everything has been rosy since then. He had a spell out of the international picture at one stage - leading to him missing the 2019 Rugby World Cup - but he is now back to being a key man for his country on the eve of the 2024 Guinness Men’s Six Nations.
The former Millfield School pupil turned 30 in December and is feeling in a good place as Scotland get ready to head to Cardiff direct from their training camp in Spain for Saturday’s round one meeting at the Principality Stadium.
Asked this week whether the best is yet to come from Huw Jones, the man himself replied: "Yeah, absolutely."
"I still feel like I’m learning and developing as a player across the board really - strength, conditioning, skills, I am still learning about the game," he told TRU.
“I definitely feel like I’ve got more to give. If I’m honest, there were times when I definitely thought that I had played my last game for Scotland. I got to a point where I wasn’t really getting much communication [from the national team coaches]. It seemed like there was nothing I could really do to get back into the squad.
"There was certainly a time when I had left Glasgow and was down at Harlequins when I thought that was it for me. I think it was the Six Nations I didn’t get selected for. I thought; ‘Well, that’s probably it for me’.
"Coming back to Glasgow [in the summer of 2022 for a second spell with the Warriors] definitely helped me to get back playing and back playing well with other Scottish players.
“It’s great to be back with Scotland. I am really enjoying it and I do feel really grateful that it wasn’t finished for me a couple of years ago."
"When you play in packed stadiums away from home, you need to embrace it’
There is no getting away from the fact that Scotland’s away record in Cardiff has been very poor over the last two and a bit decades.
Since they won in the Six Nations at the Millenium Stadium (as it was back in April 2002), defeats have come in the Welsh capital in the tournament in 2004, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2014, 2016, 2018 and 2022.
Other losses there have come in 2003 in a Rugby World Cup warm-up match and a 2018 Autumn Test.
Scotland did win a pandemic-times Six Nations match in Wales in 2020, but that was at Parc y Scarlets in Llanelli.
The Principality will be packed to the rafters at the weekend while Jones’ two previous visits there were the two defeats in 2018 which he would rather forget, but he is not daunted as his side look to break the hoodoo.
"When you play in packed stadiums away from home, you need to embrace it," he said. "We talk about silencing the crowd, but it often doesn’t happen. It’s hard to silence 80,000 or so people, but I think you can use it to spur you on.
"At the end of the day, it’s just noise and I don’t think it makes too much of a difference. We feel it at home when we get into the opposition ‘22’ and the noise really lifts.
"Or if we’re defending through multiple phases, you can hear the crowd singing, it does help in that regard but, ultimately, it is just noise.
"If you’ve done your prep and you execute, the crowd can’t stop you from scoring. You just need to embrace it and accept the fact that it’s going to be there and it’s going to be noisy.
"It’s obviously been a few years since we won down there, so I think off the bat [in the first game of the tournament] that would be a huge confidence-booster.
"Building momentum in this tournament is so important. We want to win every game and winning our first game, especially away from home, would be the perfect start for us.”
Scotland: Rowe, Steyn, Jones, Tuipulotu, Van der Merwe, Russell, White; Schoeman, Turner, Z Fagerson, R Gray, Cummings, Crosbie, Ritchie, M Fagerson.
Replacements: Ashman, Hepburn, Millar-Mills, Skinner, Dempsey, Horne, Healy, Redpath.
