“Every cap is my first, and every one is my last… that’s the way I look at it.”
― Alun Wyn Jones
“I’ve got it all: I’m good-looking, I’m educated, I can sing, and I can play rugby. Ridiculous, isn’t it?”
― Alun Wyn Jones
“You’re not going to please everyone, but then, it’s not about pleasing people: it’s about winning rugby games.”
― Alun Wyn Jones
“I am proud of being a bad loser. Bad losers are winners. That is the way it should be.”
― Alun Wyn Jones
“I never counted on playing rugby: I was just another fat kid chasing an egg. It has gone pretty well.”
― Alun Wyn Jones
“It’s very easy to quantify performances and personal accolades, but ultimately, I’m in a team sport, and it’s about winning.”
― Alun Wyn Jones
“When it comes to talking about beating certain teams, we can be narrow-minded when we need to look at the bigger picture.”
― Alun Wyn 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, not dwell on the past.”
― Alun Wyn Jones
“You have to be competitive in the job I am in.”
― Alun Wyn Jones
“I don’t regret the way I approached things, because otherwise I wouldn’t have achieved what I did, but when I look back, I could have enjoyed things more.”
― Alun Wyn Jones
“You’re as good as your next game, not your previous, so I’ll focus on the next one.”
― Alun Wyn Jones
“Losing hurts, it always hurts, and it should hurt.”
― Alun Wyn Jones
“My wife says to me, ‘You have achieved a lot’… yeah, I do know. But… there are a couple of things I haven’t.”
― Alun Wyn Jones
“It is easy to overthink things, and I am good at that.”
― Alun Wyn Jones
“You do not have time in international rugby to stop and think, ‘This is tough.’ It’s more a case of, ‘Let’s crack on.’ Where’s your next job? Fill a hole for someone who has just made a tackle?”
― Alun Wyn Jones
“There is ways and means to vent, and sometimes they can be the wrong ways.”
― Alun Wyn Jones
“Things come and go – there’s win, losses, and injuries, but you get back on the horse – but I appreciate what I’ve done more.”
― Alun Wyn Jones
“I’m very fortunate I’ve got a good support network.”
― Alun Wyn Jones
“A draw is the lesser of two evils. A loss or a draw, then obviously we are going to take the draw.”
― Alun Wyn Jones
“Going out there as a forward can shorten your career somewhat, whereas if you go out as a back, you will be OK.”
― Alun Wyn Jones
“I’ve no regrets. I don’t think you can afford to.”
― Alun Wyn Jones
“I wear my stripes on my sleeve, and I am not afraid to show them.”
― Alun Wyn Jones
“Show me a good loser, and I’ll show you a loser.”
― Alun Wyn Jones
“Some losses are harder to take than others. You can lose and play well. It is when you lose and don’t do the things you worked on and don’t do what you say you would that is difficult.”
― Alun Wyn Jones
“I’m thankful for the collaboration between the WRU and Ospreys, which will look after my best interests and enables me to play the best rugby possible.”
― Alun Wyn Jones
“You cannot expect teams to be up for a final every Saturday, but you have to in the Six Nations, and that is the difficulty we have.”
― Alun Wyn Jones
“We don’t want Welsh rugby to be seen as healthy or upbeat. If we think that, we could become complacent or stagnate.”
― Alun Wyn Jones
“People often ask whether you’d alter anything about your life. I can honestly say I wouldn’t change a thing.”
― Alun Wyn Jones
“For me, representing Wales really was a dream.”
― Alun Wyn Jones
“Ultimately I’m the captain, but if someone can’t get themselves in the right state to play, it’s not my job. If they don’t want to come into work determined to be the best they can be, they’re in the wrong job.”
― Alun Wyn Jones
“It’s great having a good academy, but if you can’t pay the players you’re producing, what’s the point of it?”
― Alun Wyn Jones
“It really gets my back up when people start using business phrases – ‘sustainability,’ ‘the brand,’ etc. – about rugby.”
― Alun Wyn Jones
“There are real people on the pitch. We’re not commodities. Well, maybe we are to some degree, but it’s the team which creates business. Some people don’t appreciate that.”
― Alun Wyn Jones
“I am a big believer that change is good.”
― Alun Wyn Jones
“I think a global season, moving it a bit towards summer, can only be a good thing from a playing and commercial point of view, but it would take a massive shift, and I do not know if it would happen in my career.”
― Alun Wyn Jones
“I find it hard to believe that anyone could be playing regularly and saying they do not have a niggle. It is the nature of the beast, what you get when you play a lot of rugby: you have to get another niggle to forget about the one you already have.”
― Alun Wyn Jones
“I would like to think I am well aware of what the Lions are about and what they represent, but out of respect for your body and the players who are putting up their hands to be selected, you keep it at arm’s length.”
― Alun Wyn Jones
“I do not know if I will stay in the game when I do retire; I have got humanity, so I do not know if I will go into law.”
― Alun Wyn Jones
“There’s always going to be questions asked where there is competition, and as long as you can answer those questions, then you’re deserving of a place.”
― Alun Wyn Jones
“I like to think I am a happy angry person, if that makes sense.”
― Alun Wyn Jones
“I am competitive because it is fun, a mentality thing, and it is something you have to be in this job.”
― Alun Wyn Jones
“I always want to be first.”
― Alun Wyn Jones
“I am paid to play, and the coaches are paid to plan, and that is what they have to do.”
― Alun Wyn Jones
“A bugbear of mine is bragging rights in regional derbies: it would be a lot more worth to the regional game if we did something special in European rugby.”
― Alun Wyn Jones
“I’m in no position to tell a fan how to support us. What I’d say is keep doing what you’re doing; it means a lot to the team.”
― Alun Wyn Jones
“There’s always a team behind the team. We’ve got our off-field guys looking after us.”
― Alun Wyn Jones
“I’d love to feature for the Barbarians. I’d love to win a Champions Cup, and I’d love to get to another World Cup and make a fist of it: get to a World Cup final at least and see what could have been, particularly after 2011 when Wales reached the semi-finals.”
― Alun Wyn Jones
“We are very conscious of our poor record against the SANZAR nations. We’ve simply not done well enough against New Zealand or South Africa.”
― Alun Wyn Jones
“Welsh rugby has done its dirty washing in public. It’s nothing new. We’re a tribal bunch. If warring parties want to sway public opinion, they do it in the public arena.”
― Alun Wyn Jones
“I’m not the only one that’s joined in the Maro Itoje song, to be honest with you!”
― Alun Wyn Jones
“There are always going to be questions asked when there is competition. As long as you can answer those questions, then you are deserving of a place.”
― Alun Wyn Jones
“I don’t compare myself with anyone.”
― Alun Wyn Jones
“You can only use what God gave you.”
― Alun Wyn Jones
“From a personal point of view, I wouldn’t have been happy with one cap but would always have been happy with two. I never counted on getting to 80.”
― Alun Wyn Jones
“When you lose, it motivates you to go again.”
― Alun Wyn Jones
“We’ve got a great team sport, but we harp on about individuals. It’s a bit contradictory.”
― Alun Wyn Jones
“Without being too profound, I never dreamt of getting 100 caps for Wales.”
― Alun Wyn Jones
“I got to a stage in my mid-20s where I was focusing on ‘what’s next, what’s next,’ and sometimes you don’t enjoy what you should.”
― Alun Wyn Jones
“I’ve got a family now, which matures you.”
― Alun Wyn Jones
“Ultimately, as players, we are inside the tent, and we have got to deal with what happens between the white lines.”
― Alun Wyn Jones
“I was watching the Five Nations as a kid, I’m very fortunate to have been able to pull the red jersey on a few times, and now I’m able to assist the team, assist the young players coming through, and help the guys who do have the ambition to play more for Wales.”
― Alun Wyn Jones
“I don’t really want followers, to be honest; that’s what Twitter is for. I want people who can make their own decisions and look after their own departments.”
― Alun Wyn Jones
“Before I was ‘the captain’ with the label – because essentially, that’s all it is – I was a player, and before that, I was a fan of the game, fan of the team.”
― Alun Wyn Jones
“When I retire, my CV might have a few holes, things I haven’t achieved that I would have felt I needed to do, but I won’t know if I did need to do them until I retire.”
― Alun Wyn Jones
“Whatever you do, whether you’re a journalist or a player, you want to see what you can do – that’s why you’re doing it.”
― Alun Wyn Jones
“I’ll look at stats after a game to see the work I’ve done in different areas.”
― Alun Wyn Jones
“You know when you’ve had a good game, and you know when you could have done better.”
― Alun Wyn Jones
“I am probably a bit numb upstairs, which is sometimes a good thing.”
― Alun Wyn Jones
“If we have given everything we can, you are not settling for mediocrity because the better team won. Sometimes you have to have that mindset to be able to improve rather than keep telling yourself you should have won.”
― Alun Wyn Jones
“I know there are certain things I may never achieve depending on whether I stay at the Ospreys or go.”
― Alun Wyn Jones
“If you had a global calendar, then you would have less games; you create more intrigue, create supply and demand with regards to the sport, and that will heighten the intrigue with regards to the Lions. Create more mystique not only at international level but at club level as well.”
― Alun Wyn Jones
“As you get older, you realise you can’t worry about mistakes; you just worry about playing, and I’ve been doing that.”
― Alun Wyn Jones
“If I make a mistake, I just shrug it off and carry on.”
― Alun Wyn Jones
“If I talk to a young player, I always tell them never try too hard.”
― Alun Wyn Jones
“I am always optimistic.”
― Alun Wyn Jones
“As I grow older, I like to think I’m getting a little bit more mature.”
― Alun Wyn Jones
“As individuals, we don’t sometimes let ourselves enjoy things that we possibly should because of ways you want to be perceived, which is a silly thing as well.”
― Alun Wyn Jones
“I’ll look back on my career as a whole and at parts of it and say I should have enjoyed that more. I suppose that’s my own fault.”
― Alun Wyn Jones
“The higher up the rugby ladder you go, the differences between winning and losing games get smaller and smaller.”
― Alun Wyn Jones
“The longer I have played, the perception of myself has changed. I conduct myself to other players a bit better.”
― Alun Wyn Jones
“I usually don’t talk for three days after a defeat. Then you have an epiphany and realise it’s just a game.”
― Alun Wyn Jones
“Ultimately, rugby players are like surfers. You look for the perfect wave, but you don’t always find it. And if you did, you’d probably pack up and try something else.”
― Alun Wyn Jones
“That’s the great thing about this sport: it’s always different.”
― Alun Wyn Jones
“Apparently, I’m the angriest man. I don’t know. It’s just an interpretation. If it was someone else, they might be called focused or competitive. I’m not that angry or grumpy, but if you want to say I’m angry because I’m focused or competitive, then that’s okay.”
― Alun Wyn Jones
“I’m happy in what I do, and I just like cracking on, doing what I love. The people around me know who I am, and that’s what means the most.”
― Alun Wyn Jones
“Players want to play a lot of rugby. We’re walking contradictions at times in that we want to play a lot of rugby, but we don’t want to play too much rugby, and we want to be available for all the big games, yet there are times when you have to sacrifice that because of game limits.”
― Alun Wyn Jones
“I did GCSE’s and A-levels. I did my finals after the Lions tour in 2009 to get my law degree. So I’ve always had an eye on life beyond playing, irrelevant of the period in my career.”
― Alun Wyn Jones
“It doesn’t matter how young or old you are, and whatever jersey you wear, you realise the derby games prick up the hairs on the backs of people’s necks.”
― Alun Wyn Jones
“Happiness is dangerous. If you’re happy, you’re content, and if you’re content, you can become complacent.”
― Alun Wyn Jones
“I’ll know when to retire when I don’t want to push myself anymore.”
― Alun Wyn Jones
“I know part of me is going to die when I stop playing rugby.”
― Alun Wyn Jones
“I look back at all the contracts I’ve had, and I never assumed I would get another one. Honestly. I don’t take anything for granted. Nothing.”
― Alun Wyn Jones
“To a point, family does that and a couple of life experiences both positive and negative that have definitely altered my perception on rugby. Whereas my first 28-29 years, rugby was the entire focus, which was not that healthy, now you realise what is really important.”
― Alun Wyn Jones
“It is very easy to make athletes, and it is very difficult to make rugby players with that rugby instinct. I would like to think I have got a bit of rugby instinct and have become more of a rugby athlete along the way.”
― Alun Wyn Jones
“I don’t think you need to go global rugby to save the Lions, but I think you need to go global rugby to save rugby and not lose things like the Lions.”
― Alun Wyn Jones
“Ultimately, we are professional rugby people, and we focus on the rugby. That’s the easy bit. We are not politicians, so we don’t have to delve too much into that.”
― Alun Wyn Jones
“Whatever career you are in, you always have other distractions.”
― Alun Wyn Jones
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