Alun Wyn Jones, who is in line to captain Wales in their Six Nations opener against Italy at the Millennium Stadium on Saturday if Sam Warburton fails to recover from a shoulder injury, has revealed how he signed for Ospreys ahead of the Welsh Rugby Union last week because he wanted the guarantee of regular rugby.
The 28-year-old Jones, who led the Lions to victory in the final Test against Australia last summer, signed a new deal with Ospreys the day before Warburton became the first player to be centrally contracted by the WRU.
The four regions and the union are still some way from meeting each other halfway in negotiations over a new participation agreement from next season and national squad players who are coming out of contract at the end of the season have been caught in the crossfire, asked to choose between one and the other.
“I was offered a central contract and it was a very hard decision not to take it,” said Jones, the leading candidate to take over as captain from Warburton with Gethin Jenkins and Ryan Jones out injured.
“I asked Ospreys to make it difficult for me by offering a complete package and they did that. That was creating pain for myself but I didn’t want it to be a simple decision based on a club offering a certain amount of money and I’d go there. There is enough in the tank at my age to think about going somewhere else afterwards.
“I want to stress that my decision was welcomed by the WRU and the Wales management. When I came into the training camp, there was an element of disappointment that I didn’t sign a central contract because it was offered to me and I’m very flattered, but they made the effort to say they were glad I was staying in Wales.”There are no divisions or anything like that. We’ve been in the set-up long enough and around the coaches long enough to know that we are successful when we are together and that’s what we will be. It has been a delicate time but the reaction to my decision has been encouraging. I am cautious about some of it because people are eager to divide and conquer at the minute, and it is the best fit for me at this point.”
If the regions fail to reach agreement with the WRU, they have the fall-back of an alliance with Premiership Rugby and an Anglo-Welsh league, even if they would probably have to go to court and challenge the International Rugby Board regulation that stipulates cross-border tournaments have to be sanctioned by the unions .
“The big thing was that I need to be playing rugby to be selected [by Wales] and that was the decision I made,” said Jones. “Had there been an agreement where I knew I would definitely have been with Ospreys under a central contract it would have been more difficult for me to choose. I’m guaranteed rugby with them, even if I don’t know what competition I will be playing in, and that would not have been the case with a central contract.
“You could say I have gone with the safer option, but if the worst comes to the worst and it goes to dust, I will regret it. I would not have signed if I did not have confidence in regional rugby: speaking as a fan, which I am first and foremost, I believe the foundations of Wales’s success have been built with the union and the clubs making regions.
“If that had not been done, where would we be now? Where we were back then? The union and the regions are both trying to work for the betterment of the game; it’s just a shame that they are not on the same wavelength. I do not want to speak for Sam, but it is unfortunate it has become like this. Ideally, you’d like them to be working together because even if it was a dual contract, that would be better than a one-on-one.”
Wales name their side on Tuesday. The defence coach, Shaun Edwards, said that Warburton was close to being ready to play after suffering nerve damage in a shoulder against Australia two months ago but revealed that Jenkins’s return was not imminent.
When asked about the captaincy, Jones said: “I will not dwell too much on it. Someone in the media said I had been overlooked in the past and I am happy just to be another cog in the wheel. I am excited by the prospect of playing in the Six Nations. We have the potential to achieve something very special [three titles in a row] but I choose my words very wisely when people talk about creating history. We have to cope with what is in front of us first against Italy before we can contemplate anything else.”
Article source: http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/news/rugby-cipriani-backed-england-return-060947490--spt.html
Alun Wyn Jones signed for Ospreys in order to "guarantee regular rugby"
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