Mark Jones (rugby, born 1979)

Mark Anthony Jones (born 7 November 1979 in Builth Wells, Powys) is a Welsh rugby union coach and former player who played on the wing for the Scarlets and Wales. Since making his international debut for Wales, he won 47 caps and scored 13 tries. He is currently a coach at New Zealand sides Crusaders and Canterbury.

Mark Jones
Birth nameMark Anthony Jones
Date of birth (1979-11-07) 7 November 1979
Place of birthBuilth Wells, Wales
Height1.86 m (6 ft 1 in)
Weight91 kg (14 st 5 lb)
SchoolBuilth Wells High School
Rugby union career
Position(s) Wing
Senior career
Years Team Apps (Points)
1995–1996
1998-2005
1998-2005		 Builth Wells
Llandovery
Llanelli		 ?
43
85		 (?)
(150)
(285)
Correct as of 19:49, 11 February 2008 (UTC)
Provincial / State sides
Years Team Apps (Points)
2003–2010 Scarlets 77 (135)
Correct as of 09:38, 13 July 2009 (UTC)
National team(s)
Years Team Apps (Points)
2001–2009 Wales U18
Wales U19
Wales U21
Wales		 ?
?
1
47		 (?)
(?)
(0)
(65)
Correct as of 19:49, 21 March 2009 (UTC)
Teams coached
Years Team
2010-15
2012-13
2015-16
2016-2019
2019
2020-
2020-		 Scarlets (backs coach)
Wales (backs coach)
Rotherham
RGC 1404
Namibia
Crusaders (backs coach)
Canterbury (attack and backs coach)
Correct as of 12 January 2020

Early life

Jones began his domestic career at Builth Wells Youth before joining the senior side. He was signed by Llandovery from Builth and in his first season of senior rugby was the highest try scorer in the Welsh League. Jones joined Llanelli in 1997 and remained at the club until his retirement in 2010. Jones has represented Wales at U18, U19 and U20 levels and made his first team debut for Wales as a replacement against England in the 2001 Lloyds TSB Six Nations.

Career

2005–2006 was a great season for Jones, as he won six international caps and scored three tries. This was after consecutive knee injuries, and major reconstructive surgery, saw him ruled out of the international arena since the 2003 Rugby World Cup.

Jones scored seven tries for the Scarlets during the 2006–2007 season, three of which came in the region's Heineken Cup endeavour, including one in the semi-final loss to the Leicester Tigers.

Jones appeared for Wales in the RBS 2007 Six Nations against Scotland, Italy and in the sole victory over England. In June, Jones was named in Gareth Jenkins's 41-man preliminary Rugby World Cup 2007 summer training squad after being rested from the two Test tour to Australia. Jones made the final 30-man cut for the RWC squad in August and played in Wales's Invesco Perpetual Summer Series, scoring a try against Argentina.

Jones appeared for Wales in the Rugby World Cup in Pool matches against Canada and Australia. He also played in the final Pool B encounter, scoring a try in Wales's defeat at the hands of the Fijians. In November 2007 Jones was selected by Caretaker Coach Nigel Davies in the line-up to face world champions South Africa in the Prince William Cup at the Millennium Stadium.

New Wales head coach Warren Gatland included Jones in his Grand Slam winning 2008 RBS Six Nations squad. He played in four matches, against England, Italy, Ireland and France, and almost scored a try for his country in the latter championship decider against France, being stopped just short of the line after a superb break.

In July 2009, it was announced that Jones was to be handed the captaincy for the Scarlets' 2009–10 season.[1]

Jones was forced to retire through injury in August 2010. Jones who took over from Simon Easterby as captain the previous season, received final confirmation from medics that his playing days are over. The news and decision to retire had been a difficult one for him, as he felt he still had plenty to give as a player both with his region and for Wales. Jones enjoyed 12 seasons with the Scarlets and was granted a testimonial year by his region during the last year. A career Scarlet, Jones played 164 times for his region and scored 425 points (85 tries). He played his first Scarlets game against Saracens on 26 August 1998. He won a total of 47 caps for Wales, scoring 13 tries for his country and was part of the Grand Slam winning team in 2008.

Coaching career

Following his retirement, Jones was announced as a skills coach for the Scarlets region on a two-year contract. This saw him coach skills both at first-team level and with a wider responsibility within the Premiership teams, Academy and age-grade pathways for the region.[2]

In 2012 he joined Wales set up, supporting Rob Howley at the 2012 autumn internationals. In 2013 he became interim attack coach during the Six Nations Championship.[3] He also accompanied Robin McBryde on the 2013 tour of Japan.[4]

In 2015 he became head coach of the Rotherham Titans in the Greene King IPA Championship, taking over from Lee Blackett. He departed in 2016, with Titans chairman Nick Cragg describing Jones as "a quality individual for whom we have the greatest respect" but stating that “results over the last three months have not been what we would have wished them to be and both parties have agreed that now is the time for change."[4]

Jones took over as head coach of Colwyn Bay side RGC 1404 in 2016 as they moved into the Welsh Premier Division for that season.[3] He led the side into a spell of exciting rugby, with commentators praising the Gogs' "sizzling, attacking style" which led to their victory in the Welsh National Cup in 2017.[5]

Jones was critical of WRU plans in 2017 to include regional A and under 23 sides in the new Celtic Cup, stating that it devalued Welsh club rugby and threatened the existence of semi-professional teams.[5]

After a spell of three years at Eirias Stadium, Jones stood down as head coach of RGC, stating that the travel between his home town of Neath and Colwyn Bay was becoming too difficult for his family. He described one occasion where he travelled 800 miles in one weekend between work, attending his son's football game, and returning home to Neath.[6] He told WalesOnline that he would continue to seek a coaching role, ideally at a PRO14 Welsh regional side.[6] He described his preferred coaching style as "working with players with a tracksuit on", but said his time in Colwyn Bay had particularly helped him develop as an off-field coach.[6]

During the 2019 Rugby World Cup, Jones was offered a role coaching the Namibia national rugby union team in Japan, "working closely with the Namibia backs both prior and during the competition". He was joined by fellow ex-Wales players Dale McIntosh and Wayne Proctor.[7]

In January 2020 Jones surprised rugby pundits when he announced he was moving to Christchurch and joining the coaching setup at the Super Rugby side Crusaders[8] on a two year deal.[9] Jones will serve as defence coach under head coach Scott Robertson and be running the attack and the backs with Canterbury, moving to New Zealand in 2020 after spending Christmas in Wales.[8] In his interview upon joining the side, he described the South Island team as "the best rugby organisation in the world".[8]

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gollark: What do you mean a "bee"? Some sort of bee silkscreen art?
gollark: I don't really do hardware.
gollark: Fun fact of the day: `...` is a valid Python expression.
gollark: I'm sure you'd like us to think so.

References
  1. "Scarlets hand captaincy to Jones". BBC Sport. British Broadcasting Corporation. 7 July 2009. Retrieved 13 July 2009.
  2. Griffiths, Gareth (2016-02-15). "Former Wales and Scarlets coach Mark Jones leaves Rotherham role". walesonline. Retrieved 2020-01-12.
  3. "Rugby | S4C". www.s4c.cymru. Retrieved 2020-01-12.
  4. Griffiths, Gareth (2016-02-15). "Former Wales and Scarlets coach Mark Jones leaves Rotherham role". walesonline. Retrieved 2020-01-12.
  5. Howell, Andy (2018-09-03). "Ex-Wales wing joins Premiership debate - and disagrees with WRU". walesonline. Retrieved 2020-01-12.
  6. Thomas, Simon (2019-05-21). "Why one of Wales' most promising coaches had to walk away from his job". walesonline. Retrieved 2020-01-12.
  7. "Former RGC head coach lands Namibia coaching role". Rhyl Journal. Retrieved 2020-01-12.
  8. Orders, Mark (2020-01-12). "Welsh coach lands huge job at 'the best rugby club team in the world'". walesonline. Retrieved 2020-01-12.
  9. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/amp/rugby-union/51028757
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