Adam Jones: "The club gave me my life."

Beyond the Breakdown is a podcast rooted in Wales’ rugby clubs, with legends sharing stories of life in and beyond the game, and the challenges facing our communities and clubs.

In our third episode we are talking to Adam ‘Bomb’ Jones, the cornerstone of the Welsh pack for over a decade, earning 95 caps and achieving a legendary feat of 3 Six Nations grand slams and 5 British and Irish Lions test caps. He’s a legend of the game on and off the field.

We had our conversation at Neath RFC, home of the original all blacks. The Gnoll is a tough place to play and is home to a rugby community that has forged some of Wales' and the world’s best players. It’s the epitome of Wales’ proud, historic, fierce and friendly rugby roots.

It was so interesting to hear Bomb talk about how much his home club in Abercrave means to him and about his 40 games for Neath being his most important games – that he feels a greater emotional connection to his local teams, than to that of the national side.

And it was fascinating to get the insight of someone who has experienced every level of the Welsh system and is now coaching in the English system, on what’s important and what works.

It also really felt like there was a lot happening at the Gnoll when we were there, which as we talked about in the episode has recently become a CIC (Community Interest Company), these are companies which operate to provide a benefit to the community they serve – which perfectly describes Neath rugby club.

Like many of the other clubs we’ve visited during this series Neath are struggling to keep the lights on and keeping people coming through the doors, but they are innovating and reaching out into the community in many different ways including hosting the Christmas lights for the town now the town council can’t afford to put them on. What a place, and what a player to have a conversation with on this episode – we really hope you get as much from this conversation as we did.