MEG Jones knows rugby is unfair which is why she is giving it everything to get to the Olympics.
The 27-year-old Leicester Tiger, who was this week named RPA Women’s Player of the Year, has spent the past season playing for the all-conquering Red Roses in 15s but has now returned to the sevens fold ahead of the HSBC SVNS 2024 Grand Final in Madrid.
The tournament serves as the final chance for players to put their hands up for Olympic selection in a competition setting with Jones hoping to usurp one of the players who has been part of the cycle the whole way through.
“My biggest thing is the game is unfair,” she said. “As much as you want to be loyal and stick to what the team need to do, you also must stick to what you need to do, and I understood that by going back to the Red Roses and then coming back to sevens.
“Yes, there is a team aspect and how you fit into that and my emotional intelligence is something that has set me apart, so I have understood that. But the game is not for ever so you need to do what is best for you and when you do that, I think you get the best out of the individual.”
Jones says that while an Olympic medal is the current priority, she has one eye on a World Cup triumph with the tournament returning to England next year. That was the vation behind spendmotiing the past season with John Mitchell’s Red Roses, starring as England claimed a third successive cessive Grand Slam. And she is not the only one making the switch with Six Nations player of the Championship Ellie Kildunne, below, also returning to sevens.
A key skill Jones is bringing from the 15s set-up is the ability to manipulate defences, having watched the sevens from afar. She beli
