Meg Jones has been open about her grief after her parents died four months apart at the end of 2024; yet after a challenging year she is keen to drive the message that through adversity you can still achieve your dreams.<\/p>\n
The England centre would fulfil one such dream if the team lift the Rugby World Cup on Saturday when the Red Roses take on Canada in the final but her efforts in a white shirt have already been rewarded with a nomination for World Rugby\u2019s player of the year. The winner will be announced following the final but the nomination alone \u201cshocked\u201d the 28-year-old.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s nothing you really expect,\u201d she said. \u201cMy mantra has always been, ask for nothing, expect nothing and just accept everything that there is. Particularly with the last year I had as well, obviously losing Mum and Dad in 2024. I think it was just a nice sort of recognition and appreciation of what I\u2019m doing, but also doing it for them, which is huge.<\/p>\n
Meg Jones runs in England\u2019s second try during their World Cup pool match against Wales. Photograph: Adrian Dennis\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
\u201cBut also a little bit sad as well in the respect of I couldn\u2019t share that moment with them\u201d<\/p>\n
Jones lost her father, Simon, to cancer and her mother, Paula, died after struggling with alcoholism. Jones does not want pity though, instead she wants to tell people there is \u201cgood in the bad days\u201d.<\/p>\n
She said: \u201cMy message is so simple, it is just trust who you are. Wear your heart on your sleeve and don\u2019t be afraid of that because I think that\u2019s where true beauty is\u00a0shown.<\/p>\n
\u201cOf course it\u2019s difficult, but I hate being the victim. I was never brought up that way. My mum and dad would hate that. So I\u2019d never sit there asking for pity or sympathy and I actually struggle to give sympathy at times because of the way my mindset is.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe bit I want to get over is that through difficult times, through adversity, you can still fulfil your dreams and your purpose. I think perspective is so beautiful and it\u2019s everything my mum and dad taught me. Input via output, work hard and always know that you\u2019ll never feel sad 24\/7. There are always good days ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jones\u2019s nomination for player of the year has come after a thoroughly impressive 2025 where she helped England to another Six Nations grand slam title<\/a> and has produced stellar performances during the World Cup, a particular standout coming in the semi-final against France<\/a> where she scored a try and won three turnovers.<\/p>\n This is not the first World Cup she has been a part of after playing in 2017. England reached the final in that tournament too but lost to New Zealand, a game Jones started.<\/p>\n \u201cI was 20, so that probably played a big part,\u201d she said. \u201cI was chasing the next thing and I probably didn\u2019t understand myself fully. I\u2019ve been through that journey fully now. I trust what I bring to the table and I lead with that. I can\u2019t hide it or try to be someone else, which I might have been doing in 2017\u201d<\/p>\n As a teenager, she had watched England\u2019s 2014 win at home in Cardiff, where she had grown up playing in a boys\u2019 rugby union team and trying to find the right outlet for her love of contact sport.<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/a><\/p>\n The latest rugby union news and analysis, plus all the week’s action reviewed<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. If you do not have an account, we will create a guest account for you on theguardian.com<\/a> to send you this newsletter. You can complete full registration at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our Privacy Policy<\/a>. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy<\/a> and Terms of Service<\/a> apply.<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n Meg Jones scores England\u2019s fifth and final try during their World Cup semi-final match against France. Photograph: Charlotte Wilson\/Offside\/Getty Images<\/p>\n \u201cI remember watching the 2014 final. I was on my own, everyone was out. So I was just watching and I remember them winning and I thought: \u2018I want to be there.\u2019 I didn\u2019t really care about all the accolades, all the appreciation, etcetera, which is lovely, but I played because I love the game.<\/p>\n \u201cI was the only girl in a full team of boys. No one wanted to tackle the girl. And then as soon as they saw my ability, it didn\u2019t matter. They were like: \u2018Right, we need to\u00a0front up here because she\u2019s scoring tries.\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cI used to play scrum-half with the boys and they used to love how bossy I was. Contact and being boisterous was just always on my mind \u2026 I had an older brother and sister and we\u2019d fight \u2026 it wasn\u2019t quite WWE but it was pretty heavy. Those are the things that make you who you are and I think playing with the boys allowed me to be boisterous. It didn\u2019t suppress who Meg was; it made me this resilient, strong, bold woman.\u201d<\/p>\n On Saturday, she and her teammates will aim to channel that self-belief into a victory that can generate a legacy for the girls and women to come in the sport in England. \u201cWe definitely feel that as a group,\u201d Jones says, \u201cbecause we know the impact that we can have because of everything we\u2019ve been through as individuals and as a collective.\u201d<\/p>\n The final teeters on the edge with both England and Canada capable of getting the result over the line. But if Jones has one of the best games of her career not only will she be crowned best in the world but England will be world champions too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Meg Jones has been open about her grief after her parents died four months apart at the end…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":170392,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":["post-170391","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-rugby","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170391","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=170391"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170391\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/170392"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=170391"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=170391"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=170391"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}