Adam Jones has outlined how Harlequins have been tapping into the thoughts of England football manager Gareth Southgate as they seek an unlikely comeback in their Heineken Champions Cup tie against Montpellier on Saturday.
Quins trail by 14 points from the first leg, with the tournament having UEFA Champions League style aggregate scores in the knockout stages for the first time. It means the Gallagher Premiership champions must produce a special performance in the return match at The Stoop to turn things around.
To try to get an edge, they have asked Southgate for assistance given his experience in football, where two-legged affairs are commonplace. Wales legend Jones, who won 100 Test caps, is part of the Quins coaching team and was among the interested observers.
READ MORE: WRU finally break silence on Six Nations flop under Pivac
“Gareth sat in our meetings and fed back to us a little bit of what he thought. It was great listening to some of his thoughts,” he said.
“We tapped him up about the two legs because football teams would do the two-leg format way more than we would. I don’t want to give the secrets away because Montpellier might be reading this!
“He was good, a lovely fella. Probably not as tall as I thought he was going to be! He was very softly spoken. He knew rugby and understood it.
“The impression we got was that he was here to learn off us as much as we were to learn from him. Probably shows how far we’ve come as an organisation.
“History has shown us that we come back at teams. It’s never over for us. To pull back within 14 points is not the end of the world.
“Montpellier said they needed 21 points against us and the fact it’s 14 is probably making them sleep a little less easily. We know we can score quickly to get ourselves back in the game, but so can they. We’ll give it a crack and we’re looking forward to the challenge of pulling those 14 points back."
Jones smiled: “I was googling famous comebacks earlier because apart from Stephen Hendry beating Jimmy White in the 1992 Snooker World Championship final I can’t think of any!”
