Ahead of the new Premiership Rugby season Harlequins Prop Adam Jones took the time to speak to Last Word on Sports
How are you finding life at Harlequins?
Yeah good, it is a bit different, different environment, but enjoyable. A bit out of my comfort zone but it’s good.
How are preparations for the new season going?
It’s a longer preseason than usual so everything has been stretched out a bit. Usually you have an eight week block, this year we’ve had a 17 week block, which has been pretty good. We’ve had two weeks on one week off, so it has been good so far.
With quite a few young lads in the squad, who has impressed you during pre season?
Everyone’s working hard, I don’t know a lot about them rugby wise yet as I haven’t played with them or seen them play. I have just been working with the young props, boys like Kyle Sinckler, Will Collier and Matt Shields, we’ve all worked together.
You played for Cardiff Blues last year and the Challenge Cup offers a quick return, are you looking forward to the match in November?
Yeah, it wasn’t particularly good last year results wise and various things off the field weren’t great. It’s a big club and I’ll always be very grateful for them for giving me a chance when I wasn’t working so to speak. It will be pretty interesting to go back but I think someone like Jamie Roberts will have more of an attachment to the place but I’m looking forward to go back.
What are your personal goals for the season?
Just to play as much as I can really, start, become first choice tight head, same as any of the tight heads here, I just want to play as much as I can.
What are your thoughts on Gatland’s law in the selection of Welsh players?
To be honest I don’t know a lot about it, you see stuff bandied about in the press, but sometimes it depends on what journalist writes it and sometimes they totally contradict themselves. Obviously you want to get as many players back in Wales as possible. There is obviously a financial element, I think, to get boys like Leigh Halfpenny, Jonathan Davies and Jamie Roberts back is going to be difficult unless they are willing to finance it correctly. To be fair to Gatland it’s the right thing to do to get them back to Wales, but again there are two sides to it, you can’t just say come back to play for Wales. As brilliant as it is to play for your country, no one is going to take a half pay cut.
Which two teams will qualify from Pool A at the World Cup?
Australia and Wales, without a shadow of a doubt.
Thank you Adam for your time and good luck for the new season
Player profile
Adam Jones
Position: Prop
D.O.B: 08/03/81
Height: 1.83M
Weight: 120KG
