Top 55 Alun Wyn Jones Quotes

Players want to play a lot of rugby. We’re walking contradictions at times in that we want to play a lot of rugby, but we don’t want to play too much rugby, and we want to be available for all the big games, yet there are times when you have to sacrifice that because of game limits.

I’ll look back on my career as a whole and at parts of it and say I should have enjoyed that more. I suppose that’s my own fault.

As I grow older, I like to think I’m getting a little bit more mature.

Ultimately, rugby players are like surfers. You look for the perfect wave, but you don’t always find it. And if you did, you’d probably pack up and try something else.

You’re as good as your next game, not your previous, so I’ll focus on the next one.

There is ways and means to vent, and sometimes they can be the wrong ways.

Whatever you do, whether you’re a journalist or a player, you want to see what you can do – that’s why you’re doing it.

I usually don’t talk for three days after a defeat. Then you have an epiphany and realise it’s just a game.

I’m thankful for the collaboration between the WRU and Ospreys, which will look after my best interests and enables me to play the best rugby possible.

What you put in, you usually get out. If you are not good enough on the day, fine, but if you put in everything you have, you usually get a decent result. When you lose, it motivates you to go again, not dwell on the past.

Welsh rugby has done its dirty washing in public. It’s nothing new. We’re a tribal bunch. If warring parties want to sway public opinion, they do it in the public arena.

Happiness is dangerous. If you’re happy, you’re content, and if you’re content, you can become complacent.

I know there are certain things I may never achieve depending on whether I stay at the Ospreys or go.

We’ve got a great team sport, but we harp on about individuals. It’s a bit contradictory.

Show me a good loser, and I’ll show you a loser.

Before I was ‘the captain’ with the label – because essentially, that’s all it is – I was a player, and before that, I was a fan of the game, fan of the team.

I do not know if I will stay in the game when I do retire; I have got humanity, so I do not know if I will go into law.

I did GCSE’s and A-levels. I did my finals after the Lions tour in 2009 to get my law degree. So I’ve always had an eye on life beyond playing, irrelevant of the period in my career.

I am competitive because it is fun, a mentality thing, and it is something you have to be in this job.

As individuals, we don’t sometimes let ourselves enjoy things that we possibly should because of ways you want to be perceived, which is a silly thing as well.

You have to be competitive in the job I am in.

It’s great having a good academy, but if you can’t pay the players you’re producing, what’s the point of it?

I look back at all the contracts I’ve had, and I never assumed I would get another one. Honestly. I don’t take anything for granted. Nothing.

There’s always going to be questions asked where there is competition, and as long as you can answer those questions, then you’re deserving of a place.

From a personal point of view, I wouldn’t have been happy with one cap but would always have been happy with two. I never counted on getting to 80.

The longer I have played, the perception of myself has changed. I conduct myself to other players a bit better.

I don’t think you need to go global rugby to save the Lions, but I think you need to go global rugby to save rugby and not lose things like the Lions.

I never counted on playing rugby: I was just another fat kid chasing an egg. It has gone pretty well.

You can only use what God gave you.

I always want to be first.

We are very conscious of our poor record against the SANZAR nations. We’ve simply not done well enough against New Zealand or South Africa.

Losing hurts, it always hurts, and it should hurt.

I wear my stripes on my sleeve, and I am not afraid to show them.

I like to think I am a happy angry person, if that makes sense.

I don’t compare myself with anyone.

If we have given everything we can, you are not settling for mediocrity because the better team won. Sometimes you have to have that mindset to be able to improve rather than keep telling yourself you should have won.

It doesn’t matter how young or old you are, and whatever jersey you wear, you realise the derby games prick up the hairs on the backs of people’s necks.

I know part of me is going to die when I stop playing rugby.

My wife says to me, ‘You have achieved a lot’… yeah, I do know. But… there are a couple of things I haven’t.

To a point, family does that and a couple of life experiences both positive and negative that have definitely altered my perception on rugby. Whereas my first 28-29 years, rugby was the entire focus, which was not that healthy, now you realise what is really important.

I am proud of being a bad loser. Bad losers are winners. That is the way it should be.

When I retire, my CV might have a few holes, things I haven’t achieved that I would have felt I needed to do, but I won’t know if I did need to do them until I retire.

I’ll look at stats after a game to see the work I’ve done in different areas.

You know when you’ve had a good game, and you know when you could have done better.

Without being too profound, I never dreamt of getting 100 caps for Wales.

I am a big believer that change is good.

You cannot expect teams to be up for a final every Saturday, but you have to in the Six Nations, and that is the difficulty we have.

You’re not going to please everyone, but then, it’s not about pleasing people: it’s about winning rugby games.

Ultimately I’m the captain, but if someone can’t get themselves in the right state to play, it’s not my job. If they don’t want to come into work determined to be the best they can be, they’re in the wrong job.

I am probably a bit numb upstairs, which is sometimes a good thing.

It is very easy to make athletes, and it is very difficult to make rugby players with that rugby instinct. I would like to think I have got a bit of rugby instinct and have become more of a rugby athlete along the way.

For me, representing Wales really was a dream.

I’d love to feature for the Barbarians. I’d love to win a Champions Cup, and I’d love to get to another World Cup and make a fist of it: get to a World Cup final at least and see what could have been, particularly after 2011 when Wales reached the semi-finals.

I was watching the Five Nations as a kid, I’m very fortunate to have been able to pull the red jersey on a few times, and now I’m able to assist the team, assist the young players coming through, and help the guys who do have the ambition to play more for Wales.

Going out there as a forward can shorten your career somewhat, whereas if you go out as a back, you will be OK.