The former hooker is now in charge of his country's pack
Jonathan Humphreys: Ten things you should know about the Wales forwards coach
Former Wales captain Jonathan Humphreys is now part of the national team’s coaching staff…
Ten things you should know about Jonathan Humphreys
1. Jonathan Humphreys was born on 27 February 1969 in Bridgend, Wales. As a player, he competed for Cardiff, Bath and Wales.
2. He captained Wales and represented the team at two Rugby World Cups, in 1995 and 1999.
3. He played in the inaugural Heineken Cup final in 1996 for Cardiff. His team lost 21-18 to French club Toulouse.
4. He went up against New Zealand’s Sean Fitzpatrick on his Test debut. “As we ran out of the tunnel, he said to me: ‘You’re not ready for this, little boy,'” he recalled in The Rugby Paper.
“I’d read his autobiography before I’d gone out there and at one lineout, he was jabbering away as he had done all match and I said, ‘Mate, I’ve read your book and it was s**t.’”
5. He won 35 caps for his country between 1995 and 2003.
6. Humphreys started coaching at Ospreys before moving onto roles with Scotland, Glasgow Warriors and Wales. He joined the national set-up as part of Wayne Pivac‘s coaching team after RWC 2019.
7. Humphreys has commended the leadership of Alun Wyn Jones – the world’s most-capped player. He said: “You are led by Al, who sets the tone very, very well about this. There is nobody who has been through this more than he has.
“When you have a team meeting and one of those (senior players) stands up and says something, you listen, based on the fact that they have been there, done it and experienced all that stuff. That is worth its weight in gold.”
8. Humphreys was named an assistant coach to Dave Rennie for the Barbarians in 2021 but the match against Samoa was cancelled on the day due to Covid cases amongst the squad.
9. He has a Rottweiler called ‘Big Dave’.
10. Humphreys said the 2021 autumn Internationals gave players opportunities they wouldn’t have otherwise had. He told WalesOnline: “I think it’s been brilliant for us in terms of finding out about people who can add to our depth.
“Those injuries that we’ve had have forced players to play who probably wouldn’t have played much.”
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