{"id":396091,"date":"2025-09-04T02:19:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-04T02:19:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/396091\/"},"modified":"2025-09-04T02:19:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-04T02:19:10","slug":"asked-about-his-toughest-opponent-alun-wyn-jones-had-no-hesitation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/396091\/","title":{"rendered":"Asked About His Toughest Opponent, Alun Wyn Jones Had No Hesitation"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Alun Wyn Jones, the Welsh rugby legend, recently reflected on his illustrious career by revealing the top three second-row opponents he faced throughout his remarkable journey. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Join the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/bit.ly\/3s8fWrj\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>RUCK\u2019s WhatsApp community here<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0and get the latest news sent straight to your messages.<\/p>\n<p>Concluding his 19-year career with a triumphant performance for Toulon in November, the 38-year-old received a standing ovation after captaining the team to a 30-27 victory over Clermont Auvergne in the Top 14 fixture.<\/p>\n<p>During the game, Jones, now the most capped player in rugby history, was celebrated by both teams as he left the field after 66 minutes. However, in a surprising twist, he made a brief reappearance as a replacement for the final two minutes, playing a crucial role in setting up the winning try.<\/p>\n<p>Having retired from international rugby in May after earning 158 caps for Wales, Jones joined Toulon in July as injury cover for the World Cup. <\/p>\n<p>In addition to his impressive on-field achievements, the ex-British &amp; Irish Lions lock shared his star-studded list of the three toughest second-row opponents he encountered during his extraordinary career.<\/p>\n<p><strong>ALUN WYN JONES: TOUGHEST OPPONENT<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>#1. Paul O\u2019Connell<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Born<\/strong>\u00a0October 20, 1979, Limerick<\/li>\n<li><strong>Major teams<\/strong>\u00a0British and Irish Lions, Munster, Ireland<\/li>\n<li><strong>Caps <\/strong>115<\/li>\n<li><strong>Position<\/strong>\u00a0Lock<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Irish rugby icon, Paul O\u2019Connell, is celebrated for his exceptional leadership and prowess as a lock. A stalwart of Munster and the Irish national team, O\u2019Connell\u2019s career highlights include Six Nations triumphs and Lions tours, solidifying his status as one of the game\u2019s great leaders.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/1837099-2.jpg\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"900\" height=\"844\" data-attachment-id=\"117806\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.ruck.co.uk\/best-scrummager-of-all-time-joe-marler-ranks-his-five-toughest-opponents\/italy-v-ireland-041015-6\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/www.ruck.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/1837099-2.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"900,844\" data-comments-opened=\"0\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;3.5&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;Graeme Truby\\\/Pinnacle&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;NIKON D4S&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;Paul O'Connell of Ireland seen during the Rugby World Cup Pool D match between Italy v Ireland at The Stadium, Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park on Oct 4th 2015 in London - Photo mandatory by-line: Graeme Truby\\\/Pinnacle - Tel: +44(0)1363 881025 - Mobile:0797 1270 681 - VAT Reg No: 183700120  - SPORT - International Rugby&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;1443974583&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;PINNACLE PHOTO AGENCY LTD&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;400&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;1600&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0.0004&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;Italy v Ireland 041015&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;1&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"Italy v Ireland 041015\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/www.ruck.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/1837099-2-300x281.jpg\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/www.ruck.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/1837099-2.jpg\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns=\" http:=\"\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-117806\" data-lazy- data-lazy- data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/1837099-2.jpg\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Alun Wyn Jones said: <\/strong>\u201cWe got to know each other very well as team-mates with the Lions and opponents for our clubs and countries. You cannot shy away from how effective the guy was in his position.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Did you know? <\/strong>O\u2019Connell initially excelled at swimming and only started playing rugby at the age of 16<\/p>\n<p><strong>Source:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.therugbypaper.co.uk\/features\/featured-post\/25094\/alun-wyn-jones-ill-miss-my-old-mate-paul-oconnell\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Rugby Paper<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ruck.co.uk\/asked-about-his-toughest-opponent-alun-wyn-jones-had-no-hesitation\/2\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">CONTINUES ON PAGE TWO<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Like this:<\/p>\n<p>Like Loading&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"sd-link-color\"\/>\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Alun Wyn Jones, the Welsh rugby legend, recently reflected on his illustrious career by revealing the top three&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":396092,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4102],"tags":[4151,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-396091","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-rugby","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115143636730403096","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396091","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=396091"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396091\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/396092"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=396091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=396091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=396091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}