‘I don’t know if I’m going to get emotional here,’ began legendary prop Adam Jones.
Wales icon Adam Jones received the news of his mother’s death before Joe Marler managed to lighten the mood with an unintentional X-rated moment.
The newly-appointed Wales scrum coach appeared as a guest on the latest edition of The Overlap’s Stick To Rugby podcast, where he was interviewed by Tom Shanklin, Scott Quinnell, Lawrence Dallaglio and Katy Daley-McLean.
Dallaglio asked Jones about his relationship with the fan favourite former England international, and the Welshman said he “got on well” with Marler before telling a peculiar, bittersweet tale that encapsulated what he was like as a friend.
“If you’re friends with him, he is the best bloke,” began Jones. Sign up to Inside Welsh rugby on Substack to get exclusive news stories and insight from behind the scenes in Welsh rugby.
“I don’t know if I’m going to get emotional here, but we were in San Francisco with Quins on a pre-season camp. We had been to Philadelphia the year before, San Francisco the next year, the furthest we went with the Ospreys was Tenby or something like that. So, with Quins it was already a different level.
“We had a good night out, day off the next day. Then I get a phone call from my wife at three o’clock in the morning saying that my mother has died. She fell down the stairs. You are obviously devastated. I come back into the room and I’m crying my eyes out.
“I’m sat at the end of the bed and Joe is my roommate. And he’s like: ‘Bomb, Bomb, what has happened?’
“‘My mam has died, she has fallen down the stairs.’ He rushes over: ‘What can I do, what can I do?’
“I’m sat at the end of the bed, and I don’t know whether he did this on purpose, I looked up and all I could see was his genitals in my face. He looks at me and says: ‘Shall I put some shorts on?'”
Dallaglio said: “That’d be a good thing to do!”
“It lightened the mood straight away,” continued Jones.
“And then he took me to Denny’s and we spent the next two hours there reminiscing and eating.
“When he cares about you, he is the best bloke. He can be a nightmare, when he doesn’t care he can be a pain.
“I’ll always remember that day when he was there for me, I don’t think he was joking! But it happened to be quite amusing having a package in my face, shall we say?”
Jones has just been revealed as part of Wales’ coaching staff for the upcoming tour of Japan. Of course, he was on board during the Six Nations but had returned to Harlequins following the end of the tournament.
Joining him in the Far East will be interim head coach Matt Sherratt, Gethin Jenkins, T Rhys Thomas and Danny Wilson.
