Wales captain Alun Wyn Jones has admitted that he and his teammates have been unsettled by the domestic upheaval that has major implications for the future of their regional teams, but insisted that they have not lost focus on their Six Nations campaign.
The 33-year-old lock, who is on the brink of setting a new record for wins in a Wales jersey, indicated that players had been bemused by news of a proposed merger between his Ospreys and the Scarlets, the two most successful Welsh regional teams, but said it has had a galvanising effect on the group.
“We’ve got a lot of experienced players in this team and we can’t forget that. It’s been nice to be able to have the outlet that is rugby and have an away game which has been a blessing in the last week,” said Jones. “It has been tough. We’ve been a bit splintered this campaign, but there has been communication with the senior group and we’ve tried to reassure as much as we can.
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“It is difficult when we don’t know the full situation. The communication hasn’t been as clear as it can be.”
He pointed out, however, that they are by no means unique in having to deal with workplace issues, suggesting that they had been fortunate to be as engrossed in their work as they are in seeking to defend their Six Nations Championship lead and that dealing with the fall-out of the latest Welsh rugby row could wait until this campaign is completed
“Whatever career you are in, you always have other distractions. Ultimately, we are professional rugby people and we focus on the rugby, that’s the easy bit. We are not politicans, so we don’t have to delve too much into that,” Jones observed. “We will hopefully get all the answers after the Six Nations.”
As well as his own leadership, they are in the hands of a head coach in Warren Gatland who has dealt with an array of crises in the course of his career and Jones said the New Zealander had been a model of solidity, saying: “He has been his unflappable self. He has galvanised from the top down, and a lot of the players have done it up from the bottom up and that’s what we need.
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