Robert Nicholas Jones (born 10 November 1965 at

Trebanos Trebanos ( cy, Trebannws) is a village in the Swansea Valley, Wales. With Craig Trebanos and a part of Pontardawe, it forms the Trebanos electoral ward in the Neath Port Talbot county borough. Controversy and opposition concerning the South Wal ...

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

)Robert Jones rugby profile
Scrum.com is a Welsh

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...

coach and former player. He was capped 54 times for Wales during his career, at that time a record. He and

Gareth Edwards Sir Gareth Owen Edwards CBE (born 12 July 1947) is a Welsh former rugby union player who played scrum-half and has been described by the BBC as "arguably the greatest player ever to don a Welsh jersey". In 2003, in a poll of international ru ...

, Rob Howley,

Dwayne Peel Dwayne John Peel (born 31 August 1981) is a Welsh rugby union coach and former player. He was the most capped scrum-half for the Wales national rugby union team with 76 caps, until his record was surpassed by Mike Phillips on 16 March 2013. Yo ...

and Mike Phillips are the only scrum halves to have achieved 50 caps or more for Wales. 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 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 RFC as a schoolboy and went on to play 286 games between 1983 and 2001/02, scoring 50 tries, and captaining them in 1989/90 and 1990/91. Jones also made an appearance for the

British and Irish Lions The British & Irish Lions is a rugby union team selected from players eligible for the national teams of England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. The Lions are a test side and most often select players who have already played for their national ...

against a Rest of the World XV in 1986. He formed a notable partnership for Wales with the outside-half Jonathan Davies before the latter's move to rugby league. Jones and Davies were important members of the Welsh team that won the Triple Crown in 1988. 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 Jones sent two high-quality passes to Davies under extreme pressure, enabling Davies to score a drop goal on each occasion and win Wales the match. In 1989 Jones was part of the victorious

tour to Australia, enjoying some memorable confrontations with the Wallabies' scrum half

Nick Farr-Jones Nicholas Campbell Farr-Jones AM (born 18 April 1962) is a former Australian rugby union footballer. His position was scrum-half. He is probably best remembered for winning the 1991 Rugby World Cup with his team against England. He now works at ...

. In 1993 he toured New Zealand with the British Lions. Jones also played for Western Province in South Africa during the 1994 Currie Cup tournament, forming a memorable partnership with South African fly-half Joel Stransky. He also played for English club

Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...

, captaining them in 1997/98. Jones was succeeded at scrum-half for Wales by

Rupert Moon Rupert Henry St. John Barker Moon (born 1 February 1968) is a former Wales international rugby union player. He played club rugby for Welsh clubs Abertillery and Neath but is most associated with Llanelli, who he captained during their unpre ...

, a move which attracted some controversy. Few would disagree that Jones was the more technically accomplished scrum-half. 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 for his superior scrum-half technique. 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 BBC radio as a rugby pundit, and he was an assistant coach at the Llanelli Scarlets. For the past ten years he has featured regularly on television as both a pundit and commentator and has featured in many documentaries on a number of TV channels including BBC, Sky, ITV, Channel 4, S4C and RTE. He is a regular on the BBC Wales rugby programme 'Scrum V', both as a live commentator and as a pundit. He was a recurring guest on the S4C Welsh language chat show 'Jonathan', hosted by his Welsh half-back partner Jonathan Davies.

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Jones, Robert 1965 births Living people Barbarian F.C. players Bristol Bears players British & Irish Lions rugby union players from Wales Cardiff RFC players People educated at Cwmtawe Community School Rugby union players from Trebanos Swansea RFC players Wales international rugby union players Wales rugby union captains Welsh rugby union players Rugby union scrum-halves