Having previously boasted respective strike-rates of one in every two and three Tests, respectively, Tommy Seymour and Stuart Hogg have both touched down beyond the opposition line just once in their last seven Test appearances and the common denominator seems to be their new Glasgow Warriors team-mate Huw Jones' voracious appetite for tries.
Not since dual code British & Irish Lion Alan Tait, has a Scottish centre shown such a nose for the line and since Jones invariably gets his hands on the ball before the men in the back three he has taken full advantage in reaching double figures in just 14 Tests as opposed to Hogg’s 17 in 57 and Seymour’s 16 in 41.
“I am getting a little bit of grief from the boys, but it’s all good natured,” laughed Jones, before noting that the threat Scotland now carry out wide has contributed to creating space for him.
“Playing with those guys allows me the opportunities and it’s always going to be one of us crossing the line.
“Sean [Maitland] scored against England, too. With the back line we have and the rugby we play, someone is going to be scoring. It just happens to be me recently.”
He admitted, however, to having a real taste for tries when the chance arises, following his second brace of tries in two meetings with an England team that has the reputation of having one of the strongest defences in the sport.
“Whenever you score one, you just want to get another one,” said Jones.
“As soon as I managed to sneak that first one, I was on the hunt for another . . . and then maybe another one after that. I almost got one in the second half, too.”
As Herald Sport columnist Max Evans points out in his column today, however, a large part of that is down to the instinct of a natural finisher and Jones did not deny that.
“If you are in the position to be greedy, you can. If there is a better option, you take it but when you get an opportunity, that white-line fever kicks in. If you can make it, you make it,” he said.
However he is very much a team man in terms of his aims as was evident in the pleasure he took in the reaction of senior team-mates.
“You could see before the game how much it meant to the guys who have been around for a while, players like John Barclay and Greig Laidlaw,” he said.
“You could see the motivation they were trying to instil in everyone else. And it paid off.
“To see their faces after the game, how much it meant to them . . . it means the world to all of us, but those guys especially, having been around for a while and had some not so good times in a Scotland shirt, it’s massive.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel