Huw Jones: from failed U11s rugby coach to Lions Test starter

On Saturday, Huw Jones will complete his journey from gap year student and under-11 D-team coach, with no real route into professional rugby, to British & Irish Lions Test starter.

The 31-year-old Scotsman will realise what once seemed an impossible dream when he pulls on the red No13 shirt in Brisbane after Garry Ringrose, the only other true outside centre on Andy Farrell’s squad, suffered a concussion and was ruled out of the first Test.

Jones was born in Edinburgh, and his mother’s father was Scottish, but he went to Millfield School in Somerset. As a sixth-former, in the same year as future Olympic long-jumper Jazmin Sawyers, he tried to make it into the professional game, but failed.

Jones has scored three tries in the provincial games so far on the Lions tour

“I had a couple of trial experiences,” he says. “I went and did a bit of training at Bath. I had a trial game with Exeter as well, against the South West of England in 2011 or 2012, but in terms of going on from that into an academy I didn’t have any options.

“I wanted to play professionally, but it probably wasn’t a realistic goal. My goal was to just try to play rugby at as high a level as I could. I was deluding myself thinking, I’ll just do that. In the back of my mind I — and probably my parents — thought, ‘He’s going to have to get a job at some point, we’ll let him enjoy his rugby, but at some point, come on, back to reality.’ ”

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With the academy route shut, Jones decided to take a gap year to South Africa. He landed a job at Bishops Preparatory School in Cape Town, where he did the odd jobs that overseas tutors tend to do.

“I wasn’t qualified to take a lesson or anything, but we’d be assisting coaching or teams, like referee games, umpiring cricket,” Jones says. “I gave one leg-before out before anyone appealed, because I was so excited about it. I just went straight up and then I was like, ‘Oh, come on lads, appeal!’

Jones dives over to score against the Waratahs in Sydney AP PHOTO/RICK RYCROFT

“My cricket team went pretty well. I coached an under-11 D team in rugby that didn’t win a game all season. I was an assistant coach, it wasn’t on me! It was good fun, just getting sent around school being told what to do. I was able to explore a new country, a new city, and also play rugby at the same time.”

Jones joined False Bay rugby club to keep ticking over, and when the first XV won the league their coach was seconded to the University of Cape Town (UCT) to run their side. The rest is history — well, it could have been. Jones had a place at Swansea University to study history but turned it down to stay in South Africa, and join his False Bay coach at UCT.

“Because I was still young, he was like, ‘Look, come and study’. It was a perfect excuse for me to stay in Cape Town, otherwise I would have had to go home,” he says. “I wouldn’t have probably considered trying to study there unless that had been brought to my attention. It ended up perfect for me.

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“My brother was at Swansea at the time — I love history. A lot of what I read is historical fiction. I’m reading The Count of Monte Cristo at the moment, which is so long, but it’s decent. I’ve read books about Julius Caesar, and Genghis Khan. So I would have studied history, but luckily I fell into rugby. Sliding doors.”

Jones, top, played with World Cup-winning captain Kolisi during his time at the Stormers NOT KNOWN, CLEAR WITH PICTURE DESK

UCT, with Jones in the team, won South Africa’s top university competition, the Varsity Cup — the breeding ground for so much top talent in the country. Quickly, Jones was snapped up by Western Province, and then the Stormers where he played alongside future World Cup winners Siya Kolisi, Bongi Mbonambi, Cheslin Kolbe and Damian de Allende.

“I don’t know how we didn’t win anything at the Stormers,” Jones says. “We had an unbelievable team.” He always felt Scottish, and slept under a Saltire, so moved to Glasgow Warriors in 2017, having made his Scotland debut the year before.

Now Jones will receive his greatest honour — a Lions Test jersey — and line up alongside Sione Tuipulotu, his centre partner since 2022 with Glasgow and Scotland.

Speaking before the tour, Tuipulotu explained how the pair gel: “What makes that combination so effective is how competitive we are against each other. I know we play slightly different positions — 12 and 13 — but we’re competitors first and I think that’s what actually makes us gel really well; that I want to bring the best out of him and he wants to bring the best out of me.

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Jones spent time with the Stormers in Cape Town before returning to Scotland in 2017 LUKE WALKER/GALLO IMAGES/GETTY IMAGES

“A midfield should work in tandem. I think it can’t be two talented players next to each other that don’t work together because it doesn’t really work. That’s why we’ve worked so well over the years, we’re always having a conversation about how we can operate pre-game. It’s, ‘I reckon I can put you through that hole, bro,’ or ‘I reckon I could skip them to get you in that hole’.

“In that way, we understand the game in such a similar way. We’ve been playing together for so long now that a lot of those conversations don’t even need to happen any more. They’re quite instinctive and that’s dangerous on a rugby field because we’re often maybe a step or two ahead of what the defence is thinking.

Jones will start at centre on Saturday alongside his club and country team-mate Tuipulotu DAVID GIBSON/FOTOSPORT/SHUTTERSTOCK

“It’s unique to have a partnership like this, in the midfield especially. It’s probably the only position on the field, maybe No9 and No10 as well, where you work in tandem so much defensively, offensively and on kick-chase, everything like that. You feel lucky that you’ve landed in a place where another guy’s play style suits yours.”

Tuipulotu is a globetrotter too; having been born in Melbourne with Tongan heritage and found his way to the Lions via the Shizuoka Blue Revs, Glasgow and Scotland. He feels he connects so well with Jones because of their similarly varied pasts.

“He’s played at the Stormers, I’ve played at the [Melbourne] Rebels, but we’ve both landed at the club at a time where we have already had so much experience and maybe we were just both stepping into the prime of our careers. That’s where all the magic happens, where we get to express ourselves,” Tuipultou, 28, says.

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“We’re not a young partnership where we haven’t played rugby. We’ve been all over the world playing rugby and I think that’s what helps us when we go up against other midfield partnerships.”

Australia v British & Irish Lions

Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane

Saturday, 11am

TV Sky Sports Main Event

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