For a player who started the last World Cup final, this was not a first audition by any means, but in victory over Italy Meg Jones served a most pleasing reminder of her feature-length credentials after starring on the smaller screen.
It feels peculiar to talk of this as an opportunity seized given Jones’ extensive and varied international experience but the Wasps’ play-maker certainly did her chances of becoming a key figure in Middleton’s Red Roses team no harm.
Despite that considerable experience, Jones arrived at this tournament as something of a figure of fascination, a Premier 15s standout balancing a hard-fought battle for places in the England midfield with preparations for an Olympics Sevens tournament at which she could play a key role. In scintillating form for Wasps at ten but viewed by England as more of an inside centre, had Zoe Harrison’s transgressions not ruled her out of last weekend’s clash then this may well have been Jones’ only action for England’s 15-a-side outfit this spring.
It was therefore important that her 63 minutes on the pitch were so impressive. After a somewhat shaky opening quarter from an offensive point for the Red Roses as Italy belied the paucity of playing opportunities afforded them in the last year with a strong start, Jones and England grew into the game, and as the attack began to click her qualities were increasingly evident, teeing up Vicky Fleetwood superbly for a score and finishing as England’s second-leading metre-maker.
“It was just about getting out there and finding the tempo and easing ourselves into the game,” Jones said on England’s performance. “We knew Italy were going to come out gunning for us.
“In the first 25 minutes, it was heavy out there, they were hitting us hard, they had great possession and great continuity. I think it was just finding the groove a little bit. We were speaking a lot about accuracy and discipline.”
Jones has been perhaps the standout individual in the Allianz Premier 15s this season, guiding Giselle Mather’s high-tempo Wasps most effectively with guile, invention and genuine x-factor. Jones’ smooth acceleration, maverick tendencies and jitterbug stepping have been ideally suited to the adapted laws that allow greater opportunities to play at pace.
With the World Cup’s postponement, England have been afforded a little more time to experiment with new combinations, at times to their detriment. Certainly in the first half, and in the face of an excellent early Italian performance, there were signs that the new midfield trio was just struggling a little for chemistry and accuracy, and in truth England were fortunate to lead by 14 at half-time after Emily Scarratt and Jones pounced on two Italian midfield mishandles.
Yet England grew well into the contest, and the reunited sevens teammates Rowland and Jones combined nicely Jones will miss England’s remaining spring-time efforts as she returns to the sevens set-up, but in her hour-or-so in Parma it was clear that her adventure can add an extra element to England’s attack, even if, as both Middleton and Jones herself admitted after the game, a dose of unpredictability can be both blessing and curse.
“I use a lot of my footwork, [I put] a bit more pace on the ball, [be] a bit more unpredictable.” reflected Jones on what she feels she can bring to this England team. “Some people don’t know what I am doing sometimes so you can see it as either an advantage or disadvantage!
“We try and be seamless with the ten-twelve shirt. It’s not necessarily that I have got to stay in this specific role, but how can we start utilising me stepping up, Rowly [Rowland] coming out the back, and mixing the shirt up a little bit. The game becomes a lot more expansive. It becomes a lot harder to read. I think we complement each other on that quite nicely.”
To underline the competition for places, Harrison also looked sharp off the bench, perhaps taking on greater responsibilities at first receiver as Rowland roamed. It seems likely that Rowland and Harrison will start in partnership in the final in two weeks’ time – though Middleton played coy on how exactly they might be configured in the midfield axis. What is clear are that there are options, both in the immediate future and ahead of antipodean adventures next year.
For Jones, it is back to Loughborough, where Great Britain’s two sevens sides are hard at work preparing for the Olympics. While she admitted to there being a degree of frustration at not being able to play in the final, Jones will quickly switch focus as she balances efforts on two fronts.
“It’s part of the game. It’s always going to be challenging for me regardless of what environment you are in. You’ve got to balance relationships with teammates as well, but if you have got the right network around you to support you, you definitely thrive and it makes it a lot easier.
“You’ve got to take this gig with a pinch of salt. Whatever opportunity arises, I always go year-by-year, or month-by-month, but whatever comes, you kind of go ‘do I want to do that? Where does that sit with me?’”
“I’m still quite young, there’s obviously the Commonwealth Games next year, the Olympics, the World Cup. There are always carrots there. You’ve just got to pick which one you want to jump on.”
