Meg Jones: ‘Through difficult times and adversity, you can still fulfil your dreams’

The toughest year of Meg Jones’s life may yet end with triumphs both individual and collective. On Saturday afternoon, England’s vice-captain will line up at No 13 in a World Cup final after a superlative season that has seen her nominated for World Player of the Year. A player who has always worn her heart on her sleeve has done so with extra meaning in the last 12 months after the loss last August of her father, Simon, from lung cancer and mother, Paula, after a long battle with alcoholism.

Where others might have struggled in the grips of grief, Jones has managed to thrive, as expressive a character as any in this England squad. But her parents have never been far from her thoughts at this tournament. If progressing past France into the final was reason enough for emotion, the individual recognition she received only added to it – so when Charlie Hayter, England’s head of women’s performance, informed the Red Roses squad that Jones had been nominated in the moments afterwards, the tears that came to the centre’s face with her teammates exultant around her were perfectly natural.

“It was a huge shock, to be honest,” Jones explains, always happy to speak openly even in the week of final. “My mantra has always been ask for nothing, expect nothing and accept everything that there is, particularly with the last year that I have had, and losing mum and dad in 2024. It was just a nice recognition and appreciation of what I am doing but also doing it for them.

“It's difficult but I hate being the victim. I was never brought up that way, my mum and dad would hate that. I would never sit there and ask for pity or sympathy and I actually struggle to give sympathy at times with the way my mindset is.

“I never want people to feel sorry for me. The bit I want to get over is that through difficult times and adversity, you can still fulfil your dreams, your purpose. You can actually use that to drive you in such a good way. I'm not saying there are never bad days, of course there are loads of bad days but there is always good in the bad days.”

The winner of the individual gong will not be decided until after the final ends; while New Zealand’s Jorja Miller has proved herself a phenom in her first year in the 15-a-side game, it feels certain that it’ll either be Jones or Canada’s do-it-all lock Sophie de Goede rewarded. While it has not always rung true that a World Cup winner is recognised above a runner-up – Canada’s Magali Harvey won in 2014 after England’s last success – it feels likely that the individual who earns best in the world status will also have toted the tournament trophy.

Born in Cardiff, Jones still carries a thick Welsh twang betraying her roots but no prouder England international you will find. Having been first attracted to the rough-and-tumble contact and contests that rugby brings as a youth playing alongside boys, England’s 2014 World Cup win helped inspire her to chase something bigger. With no professional opportunities on offer in Wales, across the River Severn she went to Hartpury College at the age of 16; an England debut followed soon enough.

By the 2017 World Cup, Jones was part of the squad as a youngster still finding her way. After injury disruption, she was called in to start the final at outside centre with Emily Scarratt shifted to full-back; England, as has unfortunately become their habit in finals, failed to find their best in a 41-32 defeat to cap a tournament that Jones did not find fully fulfilling.

“I don’t think I enjoyed 2017 as much as I could have done,” she admits. “Because I was 20, I was young, I was literally going ‘what’s the next thing, what’s the next thing?’ I was chasing, as you do as an aspiring player. Now, because of everything that’s happened as well, I’ve been so present in this time and wanting to share it with my loved ones.”

The next six years were strange, in a way, Jones swapping back between sevens and 15s and thus missing out on the 2022 World Cup. But after being recalled to the Red Roses squad in the summer of 2023 and accepting a 15s contract, other than for a sojourn to chase an Olympic medal at Paris 2024, she has been a mainstay.

As the anthem plays at a sold-out Twickenham on Saturday, those loved ones present – including partner Celia Quansah – and elsewhere will be in her thoughts, along with the capacity crowd. “I have been closing my eyes quite a lot recently, so I’ll just trying to feel and be because that is the only way we can live fully, by being in the present moment. There probably won’t be much thought, just trying to get the words right and just feeling the emotions and the 82,000 who are hopefully going to be there on the weekend.”