Jones, 31, landed in Scottish rugby with an almighty bang – power, pace, incredible lines of running, an unerring try-scoring record. Ten in his first 14 Tests – three against Australia, four against England. Unstoppable.
“When he first came through he would just wriggle out of tackles,” says Townsend. “He knew exactly what he needed to do either to get into space or to force that defender to defend him, which opened up the space for someone else.”
Everything was easy, until it wasn’t. He sailed through 2016-17 and 2017-18. A World Cup beckoned in 2019 in Japan. A Lions tour looked likely in 2021. None of it happened. There were chunks of time when he couldn’t even get a start for Glasgow, when he wanted out and when he was “at peace” with the end of his international career.
In the beginning, they called him ‘Humble Huw’, a wind-up based on his fantastic confidence. Humble ceased to exist along the way. Injuries came for him, a loss of form hit deeply, an absence of self-belief brought him to the brink. “I’d decided that was it, my international career was over,” he said.
His defensive game was ripped apart, he got an unfair reputation of being indifferent, only keen on the big games for Scotland rather than coalface nights with Glasgow.
The opposite was the case, but that was him now. Branded. He wanted to talk to his Glasgow coach, Dave Rennie, but they never clicked. Jones had no confidence around him – nervous and sweating, he tried to articulate his frustrations but couldn’t really get the words out right. He fell into a slump that nobody saw coming. Him, least of all.
So he missed out on the 2019 World Cup and didn’t play for Scotland for close on two years. The comeback was launched in a season with Harlequins, when he started to rebuild.
“Those experiences would have hurt,” says Townsend. “They’ve made him into the player he is today. You can react in two ways there. You can not work on the things you know you have to work on to get back to the level you’re capable of playing, or you can say it’s not for me, or it was the coach’s fault, or whatever.
“At times like that, you just hope that players do make it. The feedback we were giving him was that he had to do more on the defensive side of it. He had a nine out of 10 attack and he needed to get his defence up to seven or eight out of 10 and he’s done that. He’s gone beyond it. We see his defence at the same level as his attack now. He’s become a complete player.
“We’ve always wanted him to back himself more and get on the ball more because his running lines are world class.
“That little short ball that he’s been getting so far on the Lions tour when he’s played with Sione, that’s a lot to do with him being in the right place at the right time for Sione to give him that pass when the defence has made one or two decisions and they’ve drifted out and he’s through the hole. It’s almost a total package in attack.
“He reminds me of Alan Tait from my time. He was really good at running those lines and scored a lot of tries. It’s a different game now, but they’re very similar.”
Joint second try-scorer with three, third for line breaks and fourth for metres gained, Jones is having a big tour. The biggest examination has yet to come, though.
