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Huw Jones has challenged his Scotland colleagues to produce the season of their lives to help ensure there is another strong tartan contingent in next summer’s British and Irish Lions squad.
The Scots had eight players involved in the 2021 tour of South Africa – which was a 32-year high – and there are several members of Gregor Townsend’s squad who will fancy their chances of being selected to go to Australia next year.
Glasgow and Scotland centre Jones hopes his nation will be well represented, although he acknowledged that would depend on players maintaining high standards between now and the end of the season.
“We’ve been really competitive in the Six Nations over the last few years and we’ve got a lot of players who are playing very well who should be in the conversation,” said the 30-year-old, speaking as Vodafone became the new principal partner and back-of-shirt sponsor of Scotland’s men and women’s rugby teams.
“We had a fair few of our guys on the last Lions tour and it would be great if we managed to get even more. That would be really positive for Scottish rugby.
“It’s obviously a dream to play for the Lions and I’ll do everything I can to put myself in the best position to make that happen but right now, all I’m really focused on is getting into the Glasgow team first and then the Scotland team.
“It’s not really a topic of conversation among the boys just now, it’s still pre-season.
“I would imagine boys would be thinking about it because it’s a big aim that comes at the end of this season so you know you have to have probably your best season to put yourself in contention for that, but I think those conversations will come later on, probably after the Six Nations.”
After a year which incorporated a “disappointing” World Cup, a Six Nations that was “hugely frustrating in that there were games we lost that we should have won” and a “hugely-positive summer tour”, Jones feels like Scotland are “in a good place going into the Autumn Tests”.
That optimism is perhaps derived partly because a significant part of the squad is made up of buoyant Glasgow players looking to build on their historic United Rugby Championship triumph last season under Franco Smith.
“As soon as we won the final, we spoke about making sure it’s not the pinnacle for this generation of players we’ve got at Glasgow,” said Jones.
“Franco’s always looking to the future, always planning ahead, so it’s definitely not going to be a case of resting on our laurels and celebrating just the one victory. We want to build something.
“It will be a tough season because we’re now the team to beat after winning the league but we built so well over the last season after losing the (2023) Challenge Cup final and I can see us building again and being even better this season – that’s certainly the plan.”
:: Huw Jones was speaking as Vodafone announced a multi-year deal with Scottish Rugby to become a back-of-shirt sponsor of the men’s and women’s national teams.
