Alun Wyn Jones leads Wales on to the plane bound for Tokyo on Wednesday for his fourth World Cup, hoping that a tournament he believes is wide open will not be scarred by a flurry of red cards for dangerous tackles.
Wales go into a World Cup as European champions for the first time after their grand slam success in the Six Nations and a record 14-match winning run, but after three defeats in their four warm-up matches they are not ranked among the favourites.
“The profile of the squad in terms of age and experience is good,” said Jones, who turns 34 next week and is two appearances away from breaking Gethin Jenkins’s record of 129 Wales caps. “Is it the best I have experienced in a World Cup? The jury is still out on that because you can train as much as you want and be as fit as you can, but until you play in a World Cup with something on the line, you do not know.
“The tournament is special because it only comes around every four years, but it is still about winning games. My World Cup experience is a smorgasbord: not great in 2007, the semi‑final in 2011 when, on another night, we would have made the final, and while everyone talks about us beating England four years ago, we did not capitalise when Australia went down to 13 men and [we] failed to make position count against South Africa in the quarter-final.”
Jones is the only player in the squad who has played under a Wales head coach other than Warren Gatland. The New Zealander is leaving when his side’s involvement in the World Cup ends having overseen the greatest period of success since the 1970s.
“His legacy is cast, but there is still a job to do,” Jones said. “This is potentially my last World Cup chance and we will be judged on this competition, not the last 18 months.
“For the neutral, it is an open tournament in an exciting country that is going to put on one hell of a show. I am just concerned, given decisions that have been made on the field, that it is becoming increasingly difficult for referees. We will talk about the tackle laws because it is an issue. You do not want it to become a talking point that overshadows the tournament.”
