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Welsh fire, England captain - how Meg Jones became a dual-nation icon
Welsh fire, England captain - how Meg Jones became a dual-nation icon
Asked to pick her favourite rugby memory, Meg Jones side-steps the obvious.
England's Rugby World Cup win back in September may be the pinnacle of her professional career, but Jones spools back a few more years to when the stage was smaller, but, for her, the stakes were just as high - a trial for Cardiff Schoolboys Under-12 team.
"It was just one of those turning points in your journey," Jones tells BBC Sport.
I was the only girl. I had trialled the year before and not got in. That was the first time I'd ever faced some sort of rejection or maybe things not going my way within the game.
Jones wasn't concerned that her gender was counting against her. Instead she saw parental bank balances tipping the selection scales.
"It was very much the rich boys who got in," she says.
"If your dad was rich, you were probably getting in. My dad was a pipefitter welder from Cardiff, so I was part of a very working-class family. The team I played for - Glamorgan Wanderers - were from a very low socio-economic area in Cardiff, called Ely.
"I spoke to one of the boys from that trial literally years later and he said: 'You know, I was meant to be selected for that, but you were so good they had to pick you.'
That day just cemented all the values and beliefs that I had in this game: If you're good enough, you're good enough. No matter where you're from, what you look like, what gender you are, whether you're big, small, all these things, if you're good enough, you will be respected.
On Saturday, Jones - a fluent Welsh speaker, born and raised in Cardiff - will captain England against her home country for the first time.
On the face of it, crossing between camps in one of rugby's oldest and fiercest rivalries might strain respect.
Jones, whose mother was English and who headed east to famous rugby nursery Hartpury College aged 16, is an exceptional case however.
Gwennan Harries taught Jones at Ysgol Gyfun Gymraeg Glantaf, the school she attended in north west Cardiff, and remembers the reverence her rugby skills were held in.
"I was a student teacher during Meg's time here," says Harries.
"But I'd heard about her pretty quickly because she played in the boys team and she did carry the team a little bit.
The boys actually loved her. They were a talented bunch themselves, but they were gutted when Meg had to stop playing with them.
Rules preventing mixed teams meant as a teenager Jones' rugby was confined to evenings and weekends with her club - Cardiff Quins. But she continued to excel at school sport.
With that good a skillset, she could transfer across a number of different sports," remembers Harries. "She was part of the talented hockey team that won a national title.
Every Friday, at Ysgol Gyfun Gymraeg Glantaf, the pupils would sing the Welsh anthem. Harries herself has sung it on bigger stages, representing Wales in football on 56 occasions. Jones initially imagined doing the same, with her own rugby future in red.
But as she got older and assessed the best route for her own development, Jones decided to pursue England, rather than Wales.
It paid off. Jones made her Red Roses debut at just 18, starting at fly-half in a 26-7 defeat by New Zealand in July 2015.
She has fulfilled all that youthful potential; becoming one of the women's game's best players, a World Cup winner and a nominee for World Player of the Year.
And this year, after the announcement that Zoe Stratford was stepping away from the game to have a baby, she became England captain.
There is a corner of the skipper that remains forever Cardiff though.
"I still represent them, do you know what I mean?," says Jones.
Just because I've got the red rose on my chest... I still represent those parts of me, of course I do.
Back in Cardiff, that link is deep, real and reciprocated.
"Even though she's wearing the red rose, which obviously is not something that is normally celebrated much in Wales, everybody here is Meg's biggest supporter," says Harries.
"What we all really admire about Meg is the fact that she's chosen her own path, but she hasn't forgotten her roots.
"It'd be very easy to be all in now with England and leave that side of it. But she's always willing to do any interviews in Welsh and celebrate her Welshness. She's very, very proud of where she came from.
"And that's massive for the pupils here, for them to see that you can chase your dreams, but never forget where you've come from.
"Never forget your roots, and be proud of that, and be proud of who you are, and celebrate that you've got those different sides to you.
"She's a real inspiration to everybody, whether you're a rugby fan or not, whether you're Welsh or whether you're English, it doesn't matter.
She's just a real true role model in every essence of the word.
Jones regularly returns to her old school, doing coaching sessions, presenting awards and inspiring the next generation.
While there was no girls school rugby team for Jones to represent during her time at Glantaf, now there are several.
One of those who plays is another Meg Jones.
Megan Jones, the current Glantaf pupil, represented Wales in last month's under-18 Six Nations festival, lining up against England in the centres., external
Jones senior has helped nurture her younger namesake, putting on a one-on-one kicking session on a visit to Glantaf. On another occasion she presented young Meg with a pair of her boots, prompting the pupil to dissolve into tears of joy.
Harries has taken photos of the two Meg Joneses together through the years in the hope that one day the two will complete the montage by posing together after facing each other at senior level.
"We'd absolutely love that. It would be a great story, wouldn't it?" says Harries.
If it comes to fruition, there would be no sentimental soft-pedalling from Jones though.
After more than a decade of representing England, the ties are strong.
"I've given so much for this shirt," Jones says of England.
"I would fight to hell and back for this team and I've done that for years. I'd do anything for this team and to be the best version of myself for them, 100%.
But, in the back of my head, I think that Welsh fire, that Welsh passion, that little bit of grit - those are also the things that I bring. And the Welsh accent doesn't leave you!
A split identity, but undivided loyalty. Jones is a unifying figure for women's rugby on both sides of the border.
Source: BBC
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