Autumn Internationals: Wales lock Alan-Wyn Jones hoping for special test series
Saturday 1 November 2014 23:25, UK
Wales lock Alan-Wyn Jones is relishing the prospect of facing southern hemisphere giants Australia, New Zealand and South Africa in the upcoming autumn test series.
Warren Gatland’s side face the Wallabies on November 8 to kick off a series that will give the Welsh a good indicator of where they stand less than a year out from Rugby World Cup 2015.
Australia’s preparations have been dominated by off-field issues surrounding full-back Kurtley Beale and Ewen McKenzie's resignation as coach but Jones is not expecting anything less than their best.
"It is not the first time they have had off-field problems," Jones said. "They lost to Argentina (last month) and should have beaten the All Blacks, if they are honest.
"As a group of players, I do not think what happened off the field will affect them too much. It never usually does.
“They always seem to be okay on the park, and they have a pretty good record over here against us. It is something we will not focus on - we will worry about the guys on the park."
Jones sees the November tests as a potential launching pad for the team to gain momentum ahead of the World Cup and he believes their past experience can help them.
"Success - that's the buzz," said Jones. "What you put in, you usually get out. If you are not good enough on the day, fine, but if you put in everything you have, you usually get a decent result.
"When you lose, it motivates you to go again. You feel down, but it is how you channel that, rather than dwelling on it. We are not in the business of dwelling on the past.
"When we played South Africa in the (2011) World Cup and we lost, I spoke to players and we were devastated.
"But we learned more by losing and going through to face Ireland and France than we would have had we coasted through. We may not have made it to the semi-final if we had not had that loss.
"It is obvious to say we were down and devastated after losing the second Test (by a 31-30 scoreline) to South Africa in the summer, but we turned the ship around after the first Test and came so close.
"We have another opportunity to start something special in November."
