Huw Jones: I didn’t want to end up like Ryan Wilson, so I got Glasgow Warriors surgery

Prior to last Friday’s match against Zebre, Huw Jones was shocked to discover he had played in only four United Rugby Championship games for Glasgow Warriors this season.

A combination of injuries and international commitments has limited the centre’s contribution but he’s back now and ready to help his club in the play-offs. The Warriors host his former club the Stormers on Saturday in the URC quarter-finals and having already beaten the side from Cape Town during the regular league season, there is a quiet confidence in the Glasgow ranks that they can do it again at Scotstoun.

Jones’ return from a nasty finger injury has given them a boost. He had been out since Scotland’s final Six Nations match, against Ireland in March, but shook off some of the rust in the laboured win over Zebre. His comeback coincided with Stafford McDowall picking up an infection in his hand and Glasgow were able to replace one international centre with another. It was tough luck on McDowall who has been outstandingly consistent all season and has also been ruled out of the Stormers game but it opened the door for Jones to rekindle his midfield partnership with Sione Tuipulotu.

Huw Jones during a Glasgow Warriors training session at Scotstoun Stadium. (Photo by Ross MacDonald / SNS Group)

“It’s great to be back,” said Jones. “It felt like it had been quite a long time, actually. But it’s great to be back on the field, back in training. Your first game back is your first game back; you always feel it a little bit in the lungs. You can’t quite replicate match speed in training. The game wasn’t our best performance of the year but we got five points in the end and I feel much more ready for this week.”

The injury, which kept him out for two and a half months, required surgery and Jones still has his fingers taped up as a precaution. The operation delayed his return but was necessary because he had seen how other players’ hands had been left after similar injuries, including his old team-mate Ryan Wilson.

“It happened just before half-time against Ireland, in a tackle,” Jones explained. “I snapped a tendon in the ring finger of my right hand. They taped it up for the second half and it was OK, but it was one of those where you see someone like Ryan Wilson’s fingers and they’re all messed up - I wanted mine to be back to normal so I got the surgery. It’s taken a while for it to heal, but it’s healed well and it’s feeling good.

“The good thing was that there was nothing wrong with my legs so I could still run and stay fit. It was just whether I could get back to catch/pass and contact with enough time to play again. We managed to get that done. Stafford getting his hand injury may have accelerated that but it allowed me a chance to play before the play-offs. Hopefully he’s back soon.”

Warriors' Jones and Zebre's Giovanni Montemauri in action last month.

In the meantime it will be a chance to get the band back together as Jones and his good pal Tuipulotu look set to face the Stormers. The pair have combined to devastating effect for club and country in recent years and Jones expects things to click quickly back into gear. “You don’t lose it!” he laughed. “We’ve trained loads and played a lot over the last couple of years. Although I have been out injured we still have a pretty good connection. We’ve had the last couple of weeks in training. I’m not worried about that at all.”

Of more concern will be the physical test posed by the Stormers who have reached the URC final in each of the last two seasons, winning the inaugural competition in 2022 and losing out to Munster in Cape Town last year. Glasgow beat them 20-9 at Scotstoun in November and also got the better of them last season at home with a particularly impressive performance.

“In those games we’ve played well and got our physicality right,” said Jones. “They have some really good carriers in their forwards and our defence in those games was brilliant. We’ve got to be solid at set-piece and with their backs, they have a lot of danger men. It’s about us staying connected and mopping anything up then, and we also know that they will come with quite a hard blitz defence so we need to hold our feet and hit the line at the right time.

“With a blitz defence it’s high risk/high reward, so we know that if we get things right and our accuracy is good, there will be line breaks for us. But if we get it wrong, they can hit us behind the gainline, so there are opportunities for both teams. In the past, we’ve taken them here and we’re obviously looking to do that again this week.”

Glasgow were well short of their best against Zebre last Friday and although they won the match 38-26, things didn’t flow like you might have expected against the league’s bottom side. It was probably the kick up the arse we needed,” conceded Jones. “We can’t take things for granted when we play at home. We’ve had an unbeaten [league] season at home, but you can’t go into games thinking it’s going to be easy just because you are here [at Scotstoun].”

Having missed so much of the season, Jones is obviously keen to prolong Glasgow’s involvement in the play-offs for as long as possible and he would then hope to be part of the Scotland summer tour to North and South America. Gregor Townsend has suggested he may use the matches against Canada, USA, Chile and Uruguay to try out some new and fringe players but Jones wants to be involved.

“It was a bit of a shock to see that before last week I’d only played four URC games this season,” he said. “I’ve missed quite a lot of rugby. I feel fresh. I obviously don’t know what the [Scotland] squad will be, but it would be great to go. Who knows, I might be too old!”