THE word sensible doesn't always go hand-in-hand with the words elite athlete or, more particularly, rugby player, but when it comes to Harry Jones, there really is no other word that will do.
How else would you describe an elite athlete who calls an excruciating, potentially career ending injury a blessing in disguise because it allowed him to take a break from being one of the best rugby players in the country to focus on his business degree in the winter and, get this, go work in a mine during the summer.
More on that later. For now, Harry Jones is back on the ball and about to embark on the trip of his life. Today the 23-year-old West Vancouver native leaves Vancouver bound for Russia and the 2013 Rugby World Cup Sevens. Today the versatile back leaves to go do what he's done his whole career, on and off the pitch - take a lump of coal and turn it into a diamond.
. . .
Two big shadows kept Harry Jones a little obscured when his rugby career began at the Capilano Rugby Club and West Vancouver's Rockridge secondary. The shadows belonged to Ben and Charlie Jones, twin older brothers who were already blazing a path to glory at the high school level and making provincial and national youth team appearances. Harry hoped he would make the Rockridge senior team as a precocious Grade 9 player but he was sent back to junior while his Grade 11 brothers helped lead the senior team to a AA title.
"I was kind of just riding their coattails for a while," said Jones. "I think I developed a bit later than they did. Early in high school I was just doing my own thing."
It didn't take long, however, for Harry to emerge from those shadows once he moved up to senior.
"He solidified the name in Rockridge history - the Jones brothers," said Tom Larisch, head coach of rival Carson Graham who has since coached Jones on provincial teams and at Capilano. "Ben and Charlie were twins and they were outstanding and then Harry came a couple of years later and was just even better. I don't want to offend his brothers but he was a force. He dominated high school rugby."
Jones joined his twin brothers for another championship run and then helped the Ravens reel off two more after Ben and Charlie left, giving the school four AA titles in a row. Along the way he waged fierce battles with another boy wonder, Nathan Hirayama of Hugh McRoberts secondary. They're now teammates on the national sevens team but back then it was clear they were two of the best high school players the province had ever seen.
"They were both AA, Rockridge and McRoberts, and they were special," said Larisch. It didn't hurt Harry's chances that he was surrounded by elite players and coached by Rockridge junior guru David Henning and then senior coaches Tim Murdy and Perino Zambon, some of the most highly regarded youth coaches in the country.
"He's one of those talents that it would have taken him to the top no matter what," said Larisch. "But it certainly didn't hurt that he was a part of some high-end programs at Rockridge and the club to maximize his talent for his age."
Appearances at the national level started to pile up. Jones made the under-17 national team and then spent two years with the under-19 team before bumping up to the under-20 squad for his final youth season. That year he captained the national team as they travelled to Japan for the Junior World Championships.
Facing the best in the world the Canadians managed only one win and finished 14th but there was something even more troubling for Jones that emerged at the tournament - a mysterious pain in his groin that kept him from making all the moves he wanted to do.
"It was a sharp pain," said Jones. "Any time I'd sneeze or slip or anything like that, any quick motion, it would be this excruciating pain. I'd basically try to hold in my sneezes but even doing that still hurt it."
It was diagnosed as a sports hernia and Jones kept playing, joining the B.C. Bears senior men's provincial team as they won the Canadian championship and travelled to Argentina for a battle of North and South America's best. By the end of the game, however, the pain was worse than ever. Unbearable.
"After that game I called it quits," said Jones. "I couldn't even walk properly."
Another doctor sent him for a bone scan and diagnosed him with osteitis pubis, a condition in which the pubic bones rub against each other, causing irritation and inflammation. It's somewhat common for rugby players - it's sometimes called a "kicking hernia," said Jones - and it's nasty. Larisch and Jones both know several players who have had the injury and never played again or come back and been a shell of their former selves.
"I had something similar when I used to play," said Larisch. "It's very debilitating. Nothing seems to be wrong but you just have no power or explosion. It's right in the middle of your core."
The doctor laid out three options for Jones: the Band-Aid - a cortisone shot that would put him right back on the field; the knife - surgery and hopefully a full and speedy recovery; or the long haul - months, maybe even years, of rest to let it heal completely. Now here's where that whole sensible thing really kicks in - Jones picked the last option. Just as he was turning into a young superpower on the pitch, Jones chose to walk away instead of grabbing the quick fix.
A year off turned into 18 months and then nearly two whole years. Rest, light rehab, ice baths, light field work and then even more rest. It worked.
"Even when I thought I was 100 per cent healthy I took an extra month," said Jones. "I said, 'You know what? I've invested a year and a half, what's the point of jumping back in when maybe I'm 100 per cent or maybe I should give that extra month just to make sure.'"
When he returned to the field he was fit and fast, quickly racing his way back onto the national team for sevens and making his debut on the full-sided 15s team.
"It shows a lot about his character that he was able to do the necessary rehab and have the patience to come back and continue to be successful," said Larisch.
Now about those diamonds. Jones' injury may have kept him off the rugby pitch but he found other things to do. Sensible things, naturally. A student in UBC's Sauder School of Business, Jones focused even more on his studies, bumping up his GPA. He graduated in 2012 and is now sifting through a number of options for a masters degree or MBA program for the fall.
With no rugby to play in the summertime when he was injured, Jones instead focused on finding a lucrative summer job. That's how he ended up 300 kilometres north of Yellowknife working in a diamond mine near the Arctic Circle. To be fair, he wasn't crafting any fine jewels, but he was making a lot of scratch.
"We had to line the (tailings ponds) and seal them and everything. It was like five kilometers around so we had to go around the entire thing. It basically took the entire summer. It wasn't too bad - I made enough money for school the next year."
With the sport he loved and excelled at taken away from him, Jones still managed to thrive.
"I found things to kind of keep my mind off of it, which was good," he said. "It was hard going to rugby games and watching them, because I'd obviously want to be out there playing."
After going dark in the rugby world for a couple of years Jones shone brightly in his return, first rejoining the UBC team and then helping Capilano's elite men win last year's provincial title, the Rounsefell Cup. In the final, played against James Bay in front of a Klahanie Park crowd so big they drank the club dry of beer before halftime, Jones made what Larisch labelled the play of the game late in the second half as Capilano went on to win 22-21.
"One of the star players from James Bay broke the line and was going to score a try in the corner and Harry - it just shows the level of heart and commitment - sprinted from the other side of the field and caught the guy in the very corner of the field, probably half a yard from the goal line," said Larisch. "He tackled him and held the ball up just as he was about to cross the line. It was probably the defining moment of the game. . . . Most players wouldn't have gotten there, a lot of players wouldn't have even tried to get there. He covered the entire field and made a game-changing tackle."
The play solidified Jones's reputation around the Capilano club as a superstar player. A few months later he further elevated his standing off the field as well, starting up his own summer skills camp for kids at Klahanie Park. He'll hold the camp again this July 4-5, teaching kids aged eight and up rugby skills as well as the value of camaraderie and fair play. Did we mention that he's still only 23 years old?
"It's so easy to cheer for Harry," said Larisch. "I don't know if I want to call him a renaissance man - I don't want to be cheesy - but he's just an all-around good person. He has tremendous character, he's very giving, he's very thankful, he has no ego toward his teammates. He's the ultimate team guy. He comes back from international trips and he wants to play with his club and his friends. He's not just looking out for himself, he seems to be playing the sport for the right reasons. He's a true role model."
. . .
The Rugby World Cup Sevens tournament starts Friday in Moscow and Canada begins play with a bit of a tough first opponent: New Zealand. Here, finally, is where Jones maybe isn't so sensible. He thinks Canada can beat the mighty All Blacks and maybe win the whole darn tournament.
"I think it's an ideal situation for us," he said of facing the world's No. 1 team in the opener. "You play the game to play against the best in the world and right now they are. The guys are excited, no one is scared or anything like that because we know we have a good shot at beating them."
Then again, maybe Jones has proven his sensible side enough that his confidence should be taken as more than just a brave face. So what, exactly, are the team's goals at the tournament?
"To win it," he said emphatically. "If you asked the same question three years ago, four years ago when we were just kind of happy trying to get into the top eight in tournaments. Now we've beaten every team this year except New Zealand - and we came close a couple of times. . . . In sevens where the games are short if you get a bounce here or there you can be up on a team pretty quick. On any given day any team can win. That's why it's so exciting. We believe 100 per cent that we can go all the way. We just need to show up at the tournament playing the game that we want to play and let the rest take its course."
Take it to the bank? Maybe not. But whatever happens, a bet any rugby fan around here would take is that Harry Jones is going to shine.
