"They've got a saying in France no scrum no win"- Former Wales international, now scrum consultant Adam Jones looks ahead to the curtain raiser in Par

01/27/2025 11:16 AM

Last week, former Wales prop Adam Jones was announced as a new member of Warren Gatland's coaching set up for the 2025 Guinness Six Nations as a scrum consultant. 

The 43-year-old who represented Wales on the international stage on 95 occasions and made five appearances for the British and Irish Lions is currently apart of the Harlequins setup and has been since 2018 as scrum coach. The Premiership club has granted a secondment to Jones who will return to the Twickenham Stoop side after the conclusion of the Championship. 

Jones joins the Welsh setup which includes his former Ospreys coach, Jonathan Humphreys who is the current forward's coach. Wales open their Six Nations on Friday evening at the Stade de France against France in Paris. 

There's been one call up to the Welsh squad and its Ospreys man Ben Warren after WillGriff John went off injured for Sale Sharks in the first half of their 32-23 defeat to Bath Rugby Sunday afternoon. Talking about Bath probably Wales's best option now at tighthead is Archie Griffiths but he is currently sidelined with an injury. This means that the experienced former tighthead will have to bring all his expertise as it's a young squad and a lot of these players would have looked up to Jones back in the day. 

Jones knows all about winning and is an icon for the game in Wales, but the questions is can he solve the problems at tight head and if Wales get their scrum right on the night there could be a possibility of a result in Paris. 

 1: Surprise return to Wales, Coaching not Playing Obviously 

"The last couple of weeks really, just had a comms with the management did you want to come and help out," said Jones at a press conference from the Vale resort hotel where Wales have been preparing for the upcoming Championship.

"I think with Humps (Jonathan Humphreys), doing the sort of the breakdown, the lineouts and the scrum, it was a fair bit of workload relatively. 

"But yeah, I was chuffed, I was pleased, I was obviously happy to get the nod, so to speak. And yeah, it been nice so far. First day back, so a little bit like school. 

"Theres a lot of players who I don't really know obviously I've seen on TV and that, but I played it with a couple, played against a couple, played with one's dad, so it makes you feel a bit old. 

2: "From them not me", Jones on what he has seen so far in the Welsh Camp 

"How hard everyone is working to win, if you get the performance the wins will come. You can see the boys this morning, just putting a lot of detail in, a lot of effort in. You can see the boys are hurting, as you would which is natural. 

"They're a good bunch of boys, very young apart from a certain bunch of players getting on a bit. They're a good bunch of boys they are keen to win, keen to learn and that's what I've found so far. I've only done a scrum session with them, wanted to see how strong they were in the gym, bit of work to do there. 

"From them not me," Jones jokingly added. 

"I'm looking forward to it, the boys want to win and work hard, so you can't ask for anymore can you. So, I'm sure the nation will get behind them and hopefully we'll get off to a good start.

 3: Difficulty of seeing Wales struggle since that defeat in the Rugby World Cup in 2023

Wales have yet to win a test match since that 29-17 defeat to Argentina in Marseille back in October 2023. But there is no easy introduction into this years Six Nations with playing France away. Let's be honest a win would be the biggest upset of the tournament, surely?

"Oh, look, it's as you said, being a proud Welshman. I think it must have been about 1991, I think Wales played France, and we lost like 36 points to three, and at the end of the game, I said to my mother, you know, I was embarrassed to be Welsh, which followed with a backhand across the head.

"Even being in England for nine years. It's, you know, still obviously want the Welsh boys to do really well. And, you know, it's my country and yes, it's a weird dynamic when we play England. Certainly, in the past, obviously having people like Marler and Sinckler, Finn Baxter and these guys playing, you know it's a strange dynamic.

"Obviously, you want them to do well but obviously want them to lose. So, it's good to be back. It's, been hard to see what's happened in the last few years, which, as I said, the coaches and the boys are trying to put right.

4: "They got a saying in France no scrum no win"- Jones on the challenge ahead on Friday under the lights in Paris.

"I think they got a saying in France; No scrum, no win. And you know you see when you play top 14 teams, if you can get on top of them in the scrum. 

"It's a massive part of the game and I think we certainly as a club (Harlequins), we built one big away win in France last year on the back of a dominant scrum and then we pushed Toulouse pretty hard in that area. 

"So, you know, I've coached against these boys, obviously it's the French national team, so it will be a bit different, you know, chuck Antonio in it's another bigger man. 

"But yeah, look, we have to go there with a plan. We'll go there and want to take them on. 

"Also we don't want to give them anything. We don't want to give them any easy outs and you know, because it's massive out in France, especially around the atmosphere and how much they feed off the crowd. 

"If they get a scrum or maul going backwards or just, you know, one of those sorts of jouer plays when they're offloading everywhere, that's where they get on top and that's what they feed off on that energy. And so, it's key to us so we don't give them that and you know, we'll work.

"It's a short week but we'll work hard on not giving them any easy pictures to get the momentum off. So, you know, I'm looking forward to it. I'm looking forward to the challenge.

5: "He's very calm"- Jones on the pressure that Gatland faces

"There's a lot of detail that's going into it at the moment, which is good, which I think you need certainly at this level. 

"You know what he is good at and he is always you know that sort of backs against the wall mentality, bringing players together and teams together in such a short space of time and getting the results. 

"He's exceptional at that. So I'm backing him to, you know, pull it around. It's been nice to be back in really, just to see a few old faces as well," Jones concluded.

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