Hard graft pays off as Lee Jones gets the nod for trip to Cardiff

Published on Tuesday 31 August 2010 18:10

EDINBURGH'S desire to promote young Scottish talent more quickly is evident with their first team announcement of the new Magners League season as former Selkirk winger Lee Jones claims the No14 jersey.

The 22-year-old wondered if the professional game had passed him by when he was left out of selection drafts for successive SRU academies and pro squads, but he never gave up hope and believes now that his failure to win contracts has turned out to be so beneficial that it has played a key part in him winning a starting slot against Cardiff on Saturday.

"It is hard to believe I'm in the Edinburgh team to be honest," he said, "especially when I look back to this time last season. Then I was looking forward to starting the season with Selkirk again, was called up by the Scotland sevens squad, went for acclimatisation training in Delhi, came back to club rugby and played the whole sevens circuit too.

"Now, looking back, I think not getting picked for the academies actually helped me because it meant I could play every week with Selkirk, and that is where I was able to develop, learn to be consistent and it's where players do things to get attention from the papers.

"All these things have definitely got me this chance and I'm delighted now to be involved in pro rugby and pretty keen to make the most of it."

In a familiar-looking line-up, Fijian internationalist Netani Talei and Scotland cap Alex Grove join Jones as the only Edinburgh debutants, while Phil Godman will mark his 100th Magners League appearance as the starting stand-off.

However, while Grove was born and bred in England and Godman went south after school to learn the game, Jones' route to this weekend's side should provide hope for others in the Scottish game.

Many young Scots talents have gone into an academy and almost been sucked into another dimension where their contact with the real game is viewed through a bubble, but no longer experienced.

Jones has found a third way, also managing to complete a mechanical engineering degree - when he sits final exams next year - that also provides something to fall back on.

Few think he will need that soon as Jones has been quick to show his ability to make the step-up since starting pre-season nearly three months ago. He impressed in training with a physique bulked up to 14 stones over the last two years - while still amateur - scored a hat-trick of tries in the first pre-season warm-up against Watsonians and, on his Murrayfield club debut, grabbed a brace to help Edinburgh pip London Irish on Friday night.

"It is good to score early on because it does give you confidence," he added."The first try on Friday owed a lot to David Blair's skills and the second was a great team try, with a superb pass from Greig Laidlaw at the finish, so it has given us all confidence.

"You're never quite sure what the difference is going to be, or how you'll handle the step-up until you're here, but after being really nervous before the Bath game I felt pretty comfortable in both pre-season matches and it is a boost to know that you can score against a team like London Irish.

"I expect it to be another step-up again this week, with the league starting, and while it was a surprise to get selected straight away it's what I wanted.

"It is what I've been wanting for a long time so I can't wait to get started."

Pleasingly for club players and coaches everywhere, Jones added: "Coming through the ranks at Selkirk has got me to where I am, and there are many more like me in the club game with the ability, I believe, to step up and play pro rugby in Scotland. But they have to want it too.

"When we spoke a year or so ago about my disappointments in not being selected, I did say that I wasn't going to just walk away; that I would study and work hard in the gym and just try to take whatever chance I could. You do have to work hard to play at this level; I've seen that for myself. But I can say that the door obviously isn't closed to club players." Explosively quick, strong and with a low centre of gravity that helps him beat men on the field, Jones is a grounded character off it.

That was a characteristic that appealed to Moffat, the coach striving to mould a squad where everyone works for each other and prima donnas are swiftly cut down to size. Such an approach will be needed this weekend as Cardiff look much stronger than the side that has lost regularly to Edinburgh at home, not least with Dan Parks providing a new controlling influence at stand-off. Jones was actually born in the city he now represents, due to a lack of maternity facilities in the Borders 22 years ago, but it is tempting to say he was always going to be a well-balanced performer as his father is from Gala and his mother hails from Hawick.Moving from that hotbed to the Welsh capital, therefore, is the kind of challenge one expects this youngster to stride with some confidence.

To face Cardiff at the Cardiff City Stadium on Saturday, 6.30pm, live on S4C: