Wales legend Adam Jones' private chat which convinced star to snub France offer

Former Wales international Scott Baldwin has disclosed how Adam Jones persuaded him to join Harlequins despite approaches from France. The 37-year-old former rugby star now serves as head coach of Bridgend Ravens, having hung up his boots two years ago.

During his playing career, Baldwin turned out for Ospreys, Harlequins and Worcester Warriors, but he has disclosed that two French clubs made an approach about a move to the Top 14 before he ultimately put pen to paper with Quins. The hooker, who earned 37 caps for Wales at international level, recently featured as a guest on BBC Scrum V's The Warm Up, where he discussed these potential transfers. Fellow guest Jonathan Davies shared his French experience on the programme, explaining how challenging it was to reach Clermont, where he featured between 2014 and 2016. He disclosed that it sometimes required three flights to reach the city, which was "so hard to get to."

"When I was flying back and forth with Wales at a camp, you were catching like two or three flights just to get to Clermont, which wasn't ideal, but I'm not getting the violin out," said Davies.

Referring to this, Baldwin disclosed that he was contacted by Clermont and another French outfit in 2019. "Funny enough, the one club me and my wife spoke about when we decided to leave [Ospreys], was not to go to Clermont because it's too far away," joked Baldwin.

He added: "A week later, my agent phoned me and said Clermont have been on the phone. This was in early October I think, but I wasn't on the list as you were, Jon [Fox]! So it was, 'We want to offer you a contract but it'll probably be in February, March,' because a lot of the stuff gets done late if you're not a massive name like Jon!

"And at the time, I was like, I can't be waiting until March to sign a contract. And in between that, I had spoken to Stade Francais and Harlequins had come in."

This was where Welsh legend Jones stepped in with a proposal for Baldwin: "I spoke to Adam about going down. And he said, 'Would you be interested in coming in? I need someone to manage Joe [Marler] and Kyle [Sinckler].' I was like - British Lions, Joe Marler and Sinckler. And he was like, 'Mate, I promise you they'll listen. They love the scrum conversation, I'm a bit of a scrum nause.'"

Jones represented Quins for three campaigns before moving into their coaching structure in 2018. He has stayed at the PREM Rugby club ever since, establishing himself as a beloved figure within English rugby. During this year's Six Nations, 'Bomb' also linked up with the Wales coaching team on secondment from Quins as a scrum specialist.

He would later provide assistance during the summer tour of Japan, though it remains uncertain whether he'll be available to support Cymru in future. Alongside 'Bomb', there was another person who left a particularly strong impression on Baldwin through a considerate and family-focused attitude.

He added: "So I met Paul Gustard in Cardiff and I think [Gareth] Anscombe had met him after me, either the same day or after. He could have put any contract in front of me after meeting him and I would have signed. He was that impressive.

"Got out of the lift, introduced himself, knew the game we'd played on the weekend, how I'd gone, spoke about when we played against England for him, asked how my wife, how my son was. Just knew everything that you'd want to know.

"How he sold his ethos to me in terms of taking it from Saracens to Quins. They'd done really well the first year. I went home and said to my wife, 'Obviously, we need to sort the money, but it's Harlequins.'"

Gustard served as Quins chief for two-and-a-half years after arriving at the club during summer 2018. The former England defence coach departed by mutual agreement in 2021.

He now manages Top 14 side Stade Francais, who coincidentally attempted to recruit Baldwin. Baldwin has embarked upon a fresh Super Rygbi Cymru campaign with Ravens, who sit fifth following three matches. They suffered a narrow two-point defeat to Aberavon on Thursday night, with their upcoming fixture an away clash against the same opponents on October 4.