Former False Bay starter's unconventional road to international rugby success

Jon Harris

In every journey there are detours, unplanned rest stops and opportunities that develop us and offer alternative opportunities.

Some may accelerate us on our patch to success, others may create totally new opportunities, but when taken, they enrich our journey.

There was a young man who had arrived a Bishops High School as a stooge, those young men who perform tasks as sports coaches, hostel masters and mentors to the pupils of the school.

It is a gap year option which serves the stooge and his charges well. It is far more noble than the more relaxed approach of taking a breather before buckling down to life. This young man, filled with a zest for life, compassion for his pupils and a talent modestly hidden from all in his circle.

He had enthusiasm for teaching, probably bone out of his family life, where his father was a respected headmaster of a school in England. He loved to impart cricketing and rugby knowledge on to the pupils as Bishops, his mischievous demeanour underlined by the accompanying impish smile.

Yet he hid a secret. He claimed to be able to play a little rugby. He told his mates that he wanted to play for a club in Cape Town before shipping back to England to begin his studies. Brendon Fogarty, the under-20 coach at False Bay, shuffled his duties in the boarding house and he arrived at Constantia. He played his first match at the Bay in their under-20B team, simply because he kept his achievements to himself.

He soon found himself in the Bay’s under-20A team and while chronological accuracy is far from reliable, word of this talent had sped its way to Kevin Musikanth, then Head Coach of False Bay and coach of the club at the CT Tens, where folks were telling him to make his way down to the pitch where the more social of the two False Bay teams was playing.

Musikanth saw a man with guile, balance, pace and that gift sought after by all players, time on the ball, that apparent ability to see moves three or four plays ahead of now. A fine judge of potential, Musikanth immediately involved this man in his plans for the season, plans with the express aim of winning the Super League B and playing on the main stage of Western Province Club Rugby, the Super League A.

The only problem facing the coach was that the stooge was due to return to England within a month, with the UK Varsity year starting in July, and the 18-year-old was ready to return to further his education.

Musikanth, driven and convinced of this man’s talent was on the line to Dad Bill, who after a while, conceded to an extension of his son’s stay and it was at this stage that the name Huw Jones began to make the rounds in match reports and around selection tables.

Musikanth accepted the position of Director of Rugby at UCT at the end of that year and again found himself on the telephone with Bill Jones, adamant that an education was essential to his son’s future, that rugby career is only as long as your next tackle. After some coaxing and of course the Varsity Cup proviso that only bona fide students may play in the competition, young Huw, the tender age of 20 crashed through the television screens of the rugby-mad South African public, playing a pivotal role in UCT’s success that year and their remarkable return from the depths to win the final in the last move of the game.

It was a storybook campaign, the second chapter of a young man writing his own story, quietly forging his own path, a case study in the fact that life offers opportunities through different paths.

The Huw Jones brand began to be established, selection for Western Province under-21 and then the senior squad soon followed. Dad Bill’s education requirement box being ticked and pride in his son’s achievements the reward. Selection to the Stormers squad and then a regular berth in that team followed. Jones was being discussed, in selection rooms, agents’ meetings and in front of the television screen, be it about his talent to the possible eligibility to play for the Springboks should he stay.

That last possibility was frivolous talk of course and Jones headed over to Scotland, for whom he qualified to play through birth. He joined Glasgow and has been one of their standout players over the last ten years.

The announcement by Andy Farrel of his British and Irish Lions squad to travel to Australia in July brought a wave of heartfelt rejoicing across the greater Cape Town rugby community.

Folks who watched him play for False Bay or UCT, those who keenly watched him shine in Musikanth’s campaign and then grow to register the success his talent projected so early on.

Each to a person felt a special tinge of warmth, not only for his achievement, but for knowing that one of the truly modest gentlemen of the game has risen to the pinnacle of his game, recognised by opposition and teammates alike for his talent and professionalism, yet one who appreciates his history, from where he comes, and given the proper circumstances, would never deny those of that era.