Making the case for the defence seems to be in the DNA of Bethan Jones.
An all-round sports star, the 21-year-old Cambridge University RUFC women’s skipper reels off a list of disciplines that she participates in each season.
Rugby union, rugby league, football, netball, and there is a redeeming feature that is instantly noticeable about each of the positions that Jones occupies.
In rugby union, Jones started as a flanker with the Tigers second team, but now plays as a prop or in the second row. In rugby league, she has captained the University team for the last three years and is in the second row. For Pembroke College, Jones is the football team’s goalkeeper, and she plays defence for the netball team.
All are positions that could be described as more defensive in nature.
“Especially when I was a young rugby player, I was known for my hard-hitting tackles – they used to call me the ‘Beast’!,” jokes the MPhil in sociology of media and culture student.
“I’m not sure I’ve got that any more, but I was always known to hit people hard so I think defending comes quite naturally to me. Also, in rugby, the attacking is just as physical so running through people is what I like to do.”
Growing up, rugby league was the sport of choice for Jones. She is from Warrington, and played for Warrington Wolves, captaining their under-18 squad.
However, when she arrived at Cambridge to study an undergraduate degree in human, social and political sciences, it was time to try the other code, which was music to the ears of her father, who played a high level of youth rugby in Wales.
“When I got here and started playing union, he was very happy and brought me a Wales union shirt within a couple of weeks,” says Jones. “He said, ‘you’re on the right side of rugby now’!”
Football and netball are something of an “escape” from rugby for Jones, who explains: “While rugby is so serious and I’m putting so much work into it, I still get to play sport which is on the fun side and there is no jeopardy attached to it.”
Jones’s first season playing rugby union concluded with representing CURUFC’s Tigers second team in their Varsity Match, and they beat Oxford 24-0 to cap off an unbeaten season.
That experience helped elevate rugby union to the top of Jones’s sporting preference list.
“I think I’m a bit more suited to it,” she suggests. “I’m not as speedy as I would like to be if I was going to be playing league.
“It is a very tiring sport and a bit more running than union, and I think strength is my asset. I think rugby union suits slightly more – I love a scrum, I love a line-out and I miss them when I go back to rugby league!”
Jones definitely appears to have found her calling in rugby union, and will be aiming to consolidate that status by leading the Light Blues to victory at Saracens’ StoneX Stadium on Saturday, March 8.
