Career
He was capped 54 times for Wales during his career, at that time a record. Jones attracted widespread admiration during his playing career for his invention and the quality of his passing, which was often referred to by pundits as the best in the world. In addition the accuracy of his box-kicking from the base of the scrum or line-out was a potent weapon, used to best effect during Wales" 1989 victory over England at Cardiff Arms Park, and the subsequent Lions tour to Australia.
His attractive style of play earned him many invitations to play for the Barbarians in addition to his club and international selections.
He made his debut for Swansea Reconstruction Finance Corporation as a schoolboy and went on to play 286 games between 1983 and 2001/02, scoring 50 tries, captaining them in 1989/90 and 1990/91. Jones also made an appearance for the British and Irish Lions against a Rest of the World XV in 1986.
One of the most memorable tries of that championship came in the game against Scotland when Jones supplied Davies with a long reverse pass, the latter then kicking ahead and beating his Scottish marker for pace to the goal line. Later in the same game he sent out two high quality passes to Davies under extreme pressure, enabling Davies to score drop goals on both occasions, and winning Wales the match.
In 1989 Jones was part of the victorious British and Irish Lions tour to Australia, enjoying some memorable confrontations with the Wallabies" scrum half Nick Farr-Jones.
In 1993 he toured New Zealand with the British Lions. He also played for English club Bristol Rugby, captaining them in 1997/98. Jones was succeeded at scrum-half for Wales by Rupert Moon, a move which attracted some controversy.
However, he was often playing behind a weak Welsh pack at the time and Moon was brought in because of his more physical attributes rather than superior scrum-half techniques.
Jones retired from international rugby after the 1995 World Cup in South Africa, and from all rugby in 2001. Since retiring, Jones can often be heard on British Broadcasting Corporation radio as a rugby pundit, and was an assistant coach at the Llanelli Scarlets.
Foreign the past ten years he has featured on television regularly as both a pundit and commentator and has featured in many documentaries on a number of television channels including British Broadcasting Corporation, Sky, Independent Television, Channel 4, S4C and Raidió Teilifís Éireann. He is a regular on the British Broadcasting Corporation Wales rugby programme "Scrum V" both as a live commentator and also as a pundit.
