Former GB Cadet champion Will Jones is a member of the Ospreys Academy and was named captain of the Wales Under-20 Rugby team for the 2017 Under-20 Six Nations and played a starring role as they came away with three wins to finish third in the table. We caught with him after the tournament to talk about how he got into judo and how the two sports have complemented each other.
So Will, how did you get into judo?
“I was about five I think when I got started and it was a local club up the road, in my local village, and because I was too young to play rugby because it started as under-8s my dad thought ‘Ah take him up there’. I was always quite energetic, running around the house and wrestling my younger sister so my old man said ‘Let’s try out the club up there’.
“So, started at my local club and that got closed down when I was about ten I’d say, I think it was just due to numbers. Then Mark O’Connor from Gendros took me in with his son Josh and that’s my main club now, that’s where I still go back to watch training and if I was going to train that’s where I’d train.
What made you enjoy judo and stick with it?
“The competitiveness of it, the competing I would say. And it was all individual as well which I quite enjoyed as well. It was nice to have a balance between rugby which is a team sport and then judo which is an individual sport, so there’s a lot of skills being learnt. Obviously with rugby you’ve got the communication, teamwork and whatnot but with judo you get self-discipline, the motivation to go training.”
Wales is a rugby country so how did you find balancing the two sports as you grew up?
“To be fair the Ospreys Academy when I was about 16-17, that was sort of when I was at my best in judo I would say, were really good with me. Obviously they saw the benefits of judo for rugby and they were really good. If I had a Cadet European Cup at the weekend they’d give me the week off but for normal training I just had to get on with it. I’d do weights and rugby skills before college then have college and afterwards I’d go to my local club to train.”
Was there a point, while doing judo, that you thought ‘Yeah I could take things quite far’?
“I think when Mark O’Connor really ramped up the club in Gendros, he started to take us to not the big competitions but smaller ones out in France and stuff like that. I think I was about 13 or 14 and I remember my weight being 46kg, I was tiny, I was a stick, and it was my last competition at that weight.
“It was a big entry and I remember I had something like eight fights to get to the final and I ended up winning it and that’s what made me think this is what I want to do.”
As well as being GB Cadet champion, in 2015 you went as part of Team GB to the European Youth Olympic Festival in Tbilisi, how was that as an experience to go a multi-sport event at that age?
“It was more the occasion and the experience. It was just the fact there were so many athletes there and you only think in your own sport but it was an eye opener. There’s so many young elite athletes so you just appreciate that.
We were the oldest lot there as Team GB it was quite weird because there were a few youngsters there and it was in Tbilisi, Georgia which was boiling! That’s where the Junior World Cup (rugby) is this summer so I’ve got some background experience of being there not that it was the best one. I was ill for about a week out there, I was on the toilet for a good four days! And I had to fight on the fifth day!”
In both judo and rugby you need to be explosive but it can also be a grind physically. Do you think that doing the two sports at the same time helped with your physicality?
“I think it’s also body manipulation and that body control. When you fall you land on top on your front and not your back so you can quickly get up. In areas like the breakdown, when you’re locked in on the jackal and you’re gripping on and they’re trying to move you it simulates certain aspects of judo I think.
“And like you said the explosiveness, when you turn in for a throw in judo you need that second of actual punchiness and on the rugby pitch that’s similar to a tackle when you dip your shoulder and you hit, you explode for a split second. It’s not a long period of time, it’s that snap. So I think that’s what it helps and I’m not the biggest backrow forward. I’m 5’11, 95kg so I’m small for a backrower but hopefully I’ll put the weight on soon but I do feel like that gives me a key advantage on the bigger boys.
“It’s the change in height as well, that’s a big one that a lot of people they think ‘oh judo’s really good for throwing and stuff’ but it’s the change of height and it’s the transition. On the rugby pitch I’d say my strength is probably the jackal. Tackling, getting back on my feet and getting over the ball and getting the turnovers. An example of that would be on the judo mat, throwing and transitioning to groundwork and doing a turn and getting a guy onto his back and pinning him. It’s that simple speed to react to what’s happened.”
You mentioned that the Ospreys Academy supported and saw the benefits of doing judo. Have they done any judo sessions as a result?
“I’m good mate with Craig Ewers and my Academy manager asked if I could get in touch with a judo coach who could come in. I thought Craig would be the best, he’s really good at wrestling as well. He’s been in with the senior boys and done a few sessions recently and if you notice now with the Ospreys the defensive work has gone through the roof. It’s that body manipulation when you’re trying to choke tackle someone and hold them up in the tackle, the simple stuff like getting your hips lower and driving up, it’s simple movements that the boys don’t really appreciate.
“It’s weird, to use the judo on the rugby pitch you’ve almost got to do it properly on the side. You can’t coach judo into rugby, there’s not one way to do it, there’s different styles and stuff, you’ve got to find that before you manipulate on the pitch.”
What made you decide to focus on rugby over judo?
“At the Ospreys Academy you go into ‘C Group’ which is under-18s and 2015 was my last year so that was when I was about 17. I was coming into my second year at under-18s and that’s when I thought ‘I’m going to be first year Junior now, I’m not going to be really travelling cause there’s loads of juniors in my weight that are older, that they’ll be picking to go to these Junior European Cups and stuff like that and I’m not going to burst straight onto the scene as a Junior’ but I was in dominant position at under-18s because I was the oldest that year.
“I’d put rugby in the sort of background when I focused on Youth Olympics and stuff so I thought ‘Let’s focus on rugby this year and give it a good crack, let’s see what I can actually get out of it’ and then I sort of just built momentum. I got my ‘B’ contract then with the Ospreys after the first few games and then I got called up to the Wales setup at Wales Under-18s and then summer of 2016 I travelled out to South Africa and was captain out there.
“That year (2016) I had to sort of decide and be realistic with the experiences now. At the end of the day with judo, as much as I love that sport, rugby is on my doorstep, it’s five minutes up the road from my academy. In Wales it’s the national sport here and we’re at quite a high level in the world and I just thought it’s a possible career option so I thought I’ve got to choose that and that was the wise decision.
“Going to the Olympics in judo, that’s massive, personally I think that’s a lot harder than playing for the national rugby team in Wales but you run out in the Millennium Stadium, which is the aim, with over 70,000 people there, if you’ve got that option you’ve got to go for it.”
You’ve obviously gone from strength to strength since then and you’re preparing for the World Cup in Georgia now but finally, if somebody asked you why they should judo, what would you say?
It’s one of the hardest sports in the world I think but it’s the most enjoyable. When you get it right, it’s probably the most enjoyable sport out there. When you throw someone and you’re on the mat on your own, you get that adrenaline rush that I don’t think you get from anywhere else.
Will is currently rehabbing his knee and back after the Six Nations but is raring to go for the 2017 World Rugby Under 20 Championship in Tbilisi, Georgia where Wales are in the same pool as Australia, England and Samoa. If you’d like to follow Will’s journey you can follow him on Twitter @Wjones_07 and on Instagram willjones_98
