Jones: If we beat the Welsh we get to eye glory Hawkins is an Osprey soaring to Gatland’s demands
BY GORDON PARKS
HUW JONES won’t start shouting from the rooftops just yet about Scotland’s Six Nations title-winning hopes.
But he does admit a victory over Wales this weekend at Murrayfield would allow optimistic whispers that his side stand on the brink of glory.
The Dark Blues’ centre (above) was a try-scorer during a confidence-boosting Calcutta Cup win over England to open the campaign last Saturday.
And Jones said: “We come in every year and like to think we’ve got a chance. But we haven’t proved that really. We’ve had some big wins but never strung them together consistently. So building momentum is key now.
“Winning the first two games would be huge and then that will give us confidence. But not too much that we’ll become overconfident because we know there are big games coming up.
“If we can win this weekend it will put us in a good place going forward and we know there’s more on the line rather than just trying to finish as high as we can. We’ll know we’ll have a chance to do something special here.
The 29-year-old is back in the Scotland fold after a spell in the wilderness where questions were raised about his defensive qualities, but the Edinburgh-born powerhouse hit back at critics.
He said: “I like the quote, ‘you’re never as good as they say you are and you’re never as bad as they say you are’. Some of the criticism in the last couple of years has been lazy.”
JOE HAWKINS is a leader of Wales’s exciting young rugby generation – but admits his rapid rise has come quicker than expected.
The 20-year-old Ospreys centre has made an immediate impression on Wales head coach Warren Gatland.
Hawkins made his Test debut against Australia during this season’s Autumn Nations Series, which turned out to be the final game of Wayne Pivac’s Wales coaching reign.
But Gatland had no hesitation in retaining him for Wales’s Guinness Six Nations opener against Ireland when, along with the likes of wing Rio Dyer and flanker Jac Morgan, he underlined his quality.
Hawkins (above) looks set to feature in Saturday’s appointment with Scotland at Murrayfield and has settled seamlessly at Test level, already developing a strong midfield combination with 110 times-capped George North.
“The way the game is going, you can’t be too one-dimensional,” Hawkins said. “I like the ballplay, but you have got to be able to bash it up a little bit as well.
“On the field, it would be easy to go within yourself a bit, but if you want to compete with the players in camp you have to be bold and vocal. When you are in the under-20s, you see the senior team playing and you have ambitions of going on and playing for the seniors.
“I probably didn’t think it would happen as quickly as it has done.”