As a proud Welshman, Mark Jones found himself in a pretty surreal situation this time last year. There he was being linked with a role in Eddie Jones’ England management team.
The word was Eddie wanted to bring him in as defence coach to replace the departing John Mitchell. That was on the back of the former Wales wing having done that job in helping the Crusaders win the Super Rugby Aotearoa title.
In the end, it didn’t happen. Mark opted to honour the three-year contract he had signed with Worcester at the beginning of the year, while Eddie turned to fellow Aussie Anthony Seibold, the former Brisbane Broncos and South Sydney Rabbitohs Rugby League coach.
So, a year on, how does the 47-times capped Jones reflect on his spell in the headlines?
“Eddie was looking at all his options I think and he was considering them,” he says. “I was pretty conscious that I had just signed for Worcester. I had come back from New Zealand and I was committed to them and that was kind of where I was at with it really.
“It wouldn’t have been the right thing to do, but I am sure Eddie was looking at all the people that he could, all the best people for the roles. You would have ask Eddie is the long and short of it! I am sure he will tell you.
“I was definitely flattered to be linked, absolutely. It’s international rugby with a team that had a pretty good record. When you are linked with those kind of jobs, it’s a good reflection on you hopefully, but also a good reflection on the teams and the players you have worked with, because you are only as good as them.
“I don’t think Worcester were too happy when they saw it in the newspaper, but as an individual when you are linked with those roles, either officially or unofficially, obviously it’s nice. Even when you are Welsh! It’s one that if you were offered anything you would have to consider it. But as a proud Welshmen, you would have to consider it more than others, I would suggest.”
With the England job not transpiring, Jones’ focus has been firmly on his duties at Worcester, who he joined having been unable to return to his base in Canterbury for a second year due to Covid restrictions.
He came on board with the Warriors as a defence coach initially, before switching to looking after the attack. It’s a different kind of challenge to the one he had with the all-conquering Crusaders.
“I think we lost about one game when I was in New Zealand out of about 20. At Worcester, I have probably won 12 out of 40. It definitely challenges you as a coach, but I am a better coach for it,” he says.
“If you are winning all the time, you are not coaching in adversity, you are not dealing with the emotions of players who are losing and how to handle that. By the same token, if you are too long in an environment where you lose all the time, it will definitely have a negative effect on your outlook on the game and you will end up coaching to survive rather than anything else. You are just trying to get through.
“I feel throughout my playing and coaching career, I have had both elements of it which has aided me. You learn how to deal with things, so when you come up against it next time you have a better understanding.
“I’ve enjoyed Worcester. It’s been a bit up and down. There’s been a bit of a changeover with Jonathan Thomas leaving about a year in from when I started. It’s obviously never easy when you have a change of coach. But I like the club and I like the league more than anything. The Premiership is a brilliant competition. It’s very tough. It’s just so competitive.
“I am speaking from a team that finished in the bottom half of the table, yet we won the Premiership Cup, we beat Exeter, we beat Sale, we beat London Irish, we beat a lot of the teams towards the top, whereas if you look at the URC you are not seeing Zebre beat Leinster, are you? I just think on the day any team can beat any team in the Premiership.”
Jones’ fluctuating duties with Worcester have mirrored his situation in New Zealand where he did the defence with the Crusaders and the attack with the Canterbury provincial side.
“I prefer the attack, but I find the two go in hand in hand and it’s good to have knowledge of both sides of the ball. They are not coached in isolation, they are coached together. You have to understand how and where you are going to get the ball back so you can anticipate that in the game. So our attack players know the areas where they might get the ball, whether that’s contestable kicks or jackal turnovers in the ruck.”
He added: “The game is about how do we get all of our players seeing the same thing at the same time. It’s around aligning the players and often that’s around relationships more than it is technical. The drills are the drills, it’s how you handle the players and guide them to the place where the team needs them to be.”
A sprinter in his younger days, Jones began his rugby journey with his home-town club of Builth Wells, going on to join Llandovery and then Llanelli, where he was to really make his name, representing Wales at U18s, U19s and U20s, before his Test debut as a replacement against England in 2001.
It was in his early days with the Scarlets that he acquired his nickname of Boycie, as he is known throughout the game. “When I first arrived there, Stephen Jones thought I looked a bit shifty and called me Del Boy. Then, in a game, Dafydd James called for a pass using Boycie. He knew my nickname was something from Only Fools and Horses, but he got it wrong and Boycie stuck.”
With his blistering pace and elusive running, Jones established himself as a regular fixture in the Wales team through to the 2003 World Cup, before disaster struck. Two lots of major knee surgery put him out of action for a couple of years in his mid-20s, but he fought his way back to fitness, reclaiming his place in the national team set-up and sharing in the 2008 Grand Slam, coming tantalisingly close to scoring an incredible length of the field try against France in the title decider.
Having hung up his boots in 2010, he went on to have coaching spells with the Scarlets, Rotherham and RGC, as well as gaining international experience with Wales and Namibia, ahead of his highly successful stint in New Zealand. Now 42, the father-of-two feels privileged to still be involved in the game.
“I still enjoy it. I probably feel the losses and the wins more as a coach than I did as a player. You just move on to the next game when you are a player. If you’ve had a bad performance, you can throw yourself into training on Monday, get into some fitness, get into some tackling, do a bit of finishing, you can exorcise the demons.
“When you are a coach, you have to do it in a different way. You are focusing your frustrations in a different way and you have to keep a lot more of an even keel with your emotions because players are feeding off you. If you are grumpy from the result at the weekend, or you are overly happy, you can either create a bit of negativity or you can create some complacency.
“When you are a player you can just go about your job. That is the biggest thing I have noticed. You probably hang on to the losses a bit more when you are a coach and probably get rid of the wins a bit quicker. But it’s definitely the closest thing to playing. I am very fortunate to not have to walk away from the game completely as I would imagine that would be quite a difficult divorce, with it having been such a big part of my life.”
So what of the future? The potential England opportunity came and went, but does he still have ambitions to coach in international rugby again one day?
“I am like a player. You want to coach at the highest possible level, that’s the drive for you. Yes, you need to put food on the table and provide for your family and have a living and all that. That goes without saying.
“But you need to challenge yourself. If you are going to challenge the players, you need to challenge yourself. International rugby is probably one of the toughest challenges in terms of the results business. It’s a different challenge to the Premiership, which is relentless and you are just going week in, week out, with no rest from it.
“I loved international rugby when I was there for a season with Wales and the 2013 summer tour of Japan. It was a really good experience. I was a younger coach then, but I loved it. I loved working with the players, I loved the whole occasion of international rugby again, it was brilliant. But I also love the intensity of week-to-week coaching. I feel like you can make a real difference there, particularly with young players. I enjoy them both.”
We wait to see what chapter will unfold next for Boycie from Builth Wells.
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