Huw snubbed Tigers to aid World Cup bid
Scotland star Huw Jones has revealed he turned down a big-money move to leicester tigers to keep alive his World cup dream.
the English giants made a move for Jones at the back-end of last year when he was out of favour at Glasgow Warriors but, after talks with Scotland head coach Gregor townsend, he turned them down to ensure his international career didn’t suffer.
‘It was obviously a really nice offer and, yeah, I was close to going,’ said Jones. ‘the thing that kept me was probably the Scotland stuff. I had spoken with Gregor and (former SRU director of rugby) Scott Johnson, obviously he’s gone now, but with Scotland you get protected and plenty of rest.’
Jones went on to sign a two-year contact extension at Glasgow instead and now finds himself battling it out for a place in townsend’s 31-strong World cup squad that will be announced in early September.
It is not a foregone conclusion that the centre, whose two tries laid the foundations for a famous win over England in the 2018 Six nations, is guaranteed a spot.
Since then, injury issues and a dip in form have seen him struggle to get into the Warriors team, with the likes of Stafford Mcdowall and Kyle Steyn keeping him out of the line-up.
Jones was on the bench as the Warriors lost the Pro14 final against leinster at Parkhead in May and only got on when Stuart Hogg was injured in the second half.
He realises that his dip in form and lack of game time for his club last season means he has his work cut out to be one of the four centres that is picked to go to the World cup, especially as his
Glasgow Warriors colleague Sam Johnson, injury permitting, is a certainty to travel.
‘Back-row and centre is probably where there is most competition,’ said Jones. ‘It’s hard to split us all up. We’re all good players and there is no way of reading into anything we have done so far or who will be picked because it has basically been just small-sided games in training.
‘I think from this week onwards, we might start getting an inkling of what the coaches are thinking.
‘there is obviously no test match at the end of this week, but it will be more rugby-based than conditioning-based next week when there is a test match against France at the end of it.
‘there is a lot of competition from players such as Kyle Steyn, who for the most part has been training on the wing, but can play centre as well, so versatility is a big thing he brings.
‘there are other guys who do that as well — chris Harris, duncan taylor you can throw in anywhere, and Rory Hutchinson as well. and then the likes of me, I’d say I am just one position, and Sam Johnson as well.
‘I have missed a lot of rugby, missed a lot of opportunities, so this is an important time for me. Fingers crossed, the World cup is the priority at the moment and I would really like to go to that.
‘after that I would really like to kick on with Glasgow and give it my best because my first two seasons so far I’ve not really done much.’
Jones, 25, turned to experienced Glasgow players such as Stuart Hogg for advice when he fell out of favour with head coach dave Rennie and finds himself in a better frame of mind for doing that.
‘My career shot up from nothing really quickly and it was going really well, and then a few injuries and having a tough time with Glasgow brought me back down to earth,’ he said. ‘I think the experience has made me better as a player.’