YOUNG GUNS
GLOUCESTER FULL-BACK
England U20s will feel grateful to have Ioan Jones in their ranks as the full-back could easily have opted for Wales, or turned to football. The 19-year-old Gloucester back grew up playing football as a central midfielder and was in the academies of established Championship sides West Brom and Reading before influence from his rugby obsessed father turned him towards the oval ball at U12s.
Jones started out at Minchinhampton RFC before being picked up by Gloucester’s development pathway programme and has since progressed from the academy into the first team squad.
“I started pretty late at U12s as I had played football my whole life,” Jones told The Rugby Paper. “Football was my main sport growing up, I was never interested in the rough old sport of rugby.
“My dad is a massive rugby fan, he grew up in Wales and rugby is of course a really big thing there. He would always try to persuade me as a young kid to get into rugby but I never enjoyed it and preferred football. One weekend it just clicked for me, my dad took me to my first training session and from there I absolutely loved it. I stuck with it and then let go of football which was a hard moment.”
Jones qualifies for Wales through his father’s side and if he hadn’t remained in England for sixth form, he may have pulled on a red jersey during the U20s Six Nations.
He added: “The temptation was always there. Coming towards the start of A-levels I had to make a decision on what school to go to whether it was in Cheltenham or Llandovery. I had some close friends in Cheltenham so decided to go through the England pathway instead.”
Jones is thriving at Gloucester and made his club debut in the Premiership Cup coming off the bench to score the winning try away at Saracens in a 29-20 win back in September.
“Making my debut at Sarries was an amazing experience,”
