Jones has the neck to do it all again

RUGBY: Gerry Thornleytalks to Munster's Felix Jones, who has made a promising return after a serious neck injury

A FIRST Magners League try was smartly taken, even if it was as much the product of most of those in front of him as well as the inviting gap in Aironi’s defence. But as significant in Felix Jones’s road to complete rehabilitation last Saturday night at Musgrave Park from the career-threatening neck injury in his previous competitive outing last December were a couple of other moments.

When Ludovic Mercier chipped a 63rd-minute Aironi restart up the middle for their 6ft 6in lock Jaco Erasmus to chase, Jones charged forward and jumped, unaware of Niall Ronan coming in from his right. All three collided but Ronan came off worst.

Even better was the incident 10 minutes later when Mercier cross-kicked, with Erasmus again the intended target. Once more Jones charged forward, jumped and gathered only to lose the ball over the touchline in contact with Erasmus. The collective ‘aw’ quickly subsided to be replaced by applause. Jones had been ultra-committed. Psychologically, there’s no legacy there.

“I’m completely confident in it now. I’ll admit that in the first few training sessions in pre-season, the first bit of contact I’d done, it was a very gradual process. I started off with just light pad work and stuff like that. But during training we’ve been smashing into each other, so going into contact now it’s the same, just hell for leather. When it comes to games now, it’s just like before. I don’t even think about it.”

Against Connacht at Thomond Park last St Stephen’s Day, Jones was running flat out with the ball in his hands, trying to fend off one player on his right when he saw Johnny O’Connor looming late on his left. What happened next was absolutely no fault of O’Connor’s.

“I tried to dip as low as I could and my head went straight into his chest,” recalls Jones. “It was chin to chest so I heard a bit of a crunch and thought, ‘oh, that’s not good’. I actually tried to stand up to get involved in the next play, stupidly, and I couldn’t lift my neck. The physio came over and straight away said, ‘lie down’.

“I knew I was okay in that I could feel everything – I could feel my toes, my hands and all that. I knew I could move my legs if I had to even though they told me not to. They strapped me up to a spinal board and off to hospital.”

He had dislocated his C5/C6 vertebrae. “Then they were literally pulling screws out of my neck, to straighten the dislocation and that was hell, I have to say. I was fairly frightened at that stage and I wasn’t able to move. Some family and a load of lads came in, which was great.”

After the operation, he had the brace on for six weeks before the surgeon, Dr Charles Marks, eventually gave Jones the all-clear to play again. Building up the strength in his neck again was laborious, beginning with “head nods” and posture, before some light weight-bearing exercise. Jones is also indebted to the doctors, physios and conditioning staff at Munster, as well as the company of his injured team-mates.

It must have been hell at first for his parents, Alfie and Amelia, and his three sisters. There had been little rugby in the family tree, and it was through his father’s connections in Seapoint that Jones first caught the rugby bug, playing all the way through from under-eights to the first team, and also at St Andrew’s. He has retained strong links with Seapoint, where Brian Murdoch and Deccie Keegan were formative coaching influences, and where he won an All-Ireland Junior Cup as a dual status player with Belvedere, and is as highly regarded at the club for the way he has remained grounded as much as for his talent.

His debt to Richie Murphy and Colin McEntee, along with conditioning coach Dan Tobin, for a “brilliant” two years at the Leinster academy is just as pronounced. “The three of them coach you to be ready for professional rugby.”

By then he had been a try-scoring full-back on the Irish Under-20 Grand Slam team coached by Eric Elwood, most of whom have gone into the professional ranks, as he would be in the Ireland As’ Churchill Cup win of 2009.

By then he’d been offered a full contract by Munster, and having spoken to family and friends, concluded it was a better career move. “It was a very tough decision for me. I was weighing up my options and I just thought I might have more of an opportunity to play down here.”

So, how has a nice Sandycove boy educated at St Andrew’s settled in at Munster? Eh, predictably. “I get a fair bit of slagging about the accent. It’s beginning to subside but every now and then somebody will call me a Dublin something or other. I live in Limerick and everyone is within 10 minutes of each other. When I first moved in Niall Ronan, who had done the same move, was literally living two doors down, and the likes of Barry Murphy, Ian Dowling and Flah (Jerry Flannery) all live within two minutes, so it’s great.”

For Munster he looks like a perfect fit, giving them something they possibly don’t have apart from Keith Earls. Despite last season’s unwanted interruption it’s also given him more exposure, and helped to improve his game. He’s had to work on his kicking, utilising the delayed return to full contact to do just that, judging by his efforts against Aironi, but the amendments to the tackle and kick-chase offside laws should also suit talented runners with real wheels and elusiveness such as Jones.

“The kicking tennis wouldn’t be my strong point,” he admits self-deprecatingly. “I’m the kind of player that likes to run the ball, whether that’s because I wouldn’t class myself as a very strong kicker, but it’s a lot faster and there are more opportunities to run the ball and counter, and hopefully it will open up the game a bit more.”

JONES FACTFILE

Date Of Birth: Aug 15th, 1987

Birthplace: Dublin

Height: 1.83 m (6ft 0in)

Weight: 88 kg (13 st 11 lb)

Position: Fullback cum wing.

School: St Andrew's College.

Clubs: Seapoint and Belvedere.

Honours: Ireland Under-20 Grand Slam, Irish A Churchill Cup, All-Ireland Junior Cup with Seapoint.

Munster: Played 7, 1 try.