Nia Jones interview: Dual-sport Wales international planning for the long term at Leeds Rhinos Netball

“We had a taster with the Rhinos rugby league women, a sort of session swap,” begins the 30-year-old dual-sports international.

“They joined us for one of our netball sessions, we talked them through some of our hand-eye co-ordination stuff and spatial awareness that they found beneficial – and they were really good as well, I thought I was feisty but they showed me up.

“And then we joined them on a very, very cold Thursday night at Kirkstall for a rugby league session. We got on the tackle pads and our GPS units were blowing up. It was cool to do a bit of cross-sports stuff, we learned loads and I loved it.”

Might this be the start of the third incarnation of Nia Jones the multi-sports star?

“Probably not,” she laughs. “When we walked into the training session there were a couple of girls on crutches, a couple with black eyes and one with a broken jaw.

“I like the rough and tumble of netball but those girls are a little too tough for me.”

Fans of the Leeds Rhinos netball that begin their third season in the Vitality Superleague next month needn’t worry, Jones is fully committed to the cause.

It hadn’t always been like that for a girl who grew up in a small village in north Wales and tried pretty much every sport going.

“I went to such a small school that only had 65 kids, so everybody just tried everything. So I did everything from ballet to hockey, taekwondo, football, netball, athletics,” says Jones.

“We had a netball coach come into the school when I was in Year 3 or 4, I just loved playing in a team sport and netball for me is the ultimate team sport, you cannot do anything on your own, you need your mates, you’re passing off every three seconds, you have to manipulate and find space in really small areas.

“It’s given me the opportunity to travel all over. It’s opened up loads of avenues for me.”

Through her late teens and into her twenties, Jones played both football and netball.

She moved to Cardiff aged 18 to play football for City and netball for Celtic Dragons.

As a football defender, she earned 30 caps for Wales, played for Reading for two seasons in the WSL and even worked as a pundit for BBC Sport out in Qatar six weeks ago for the Wales-England game in the World Cup.

“I don’t want to talk about the result,” she says.

Netball-wise, she spent two years at Severn Storm, but otherwise Celtic Dragons have always been her club, and eventually, it was the indoor game that took over as netball edged ahead of football in the race towards professionalism.

“I was at a cross-roads at Reading in 2017,” says Jones.

“The trials were coming up for the Commonwealth Games netball squad, I wasn’t playing much football for Reading because I’d broken my ankle, so I had a dilemma: do I renew my contract, seek out a new contract, or do I go back to netball to try and make that Commonwealth Games squad?

“I’d been to the 2014 Glasgow Games to play netball, it was the most magical experience ever.

“So I rehabbed towards netball and ended up going to another Commonwealth Games. And from there is just rolled into the next netball contract.

“I never fully said I’m retiring from football, I was just riding the wave of netball opportunities.”

This latest netball opportunity came about in the summer, when she saw her old Severn Stars team-mate Liana Leota had taken over as director of netball at Leeds Rhinos.

“I fancied a change,” says Jones, who before linking up with her new team-mates in Noevmber, helped Wales qualify for this summer’s World Cup in South Africa.

“Even with the football and a couple of years at Severn Stars, I’d always returned to Dragons and been a fan of Dragons since I was a teenager. I absolutely love Cardiff, it was a second home to me but I just felt like I’d got a bit comfortable and was seeking a new challenge, I needed to freshen it up. I didn’t want to get too comfortable because I don’t think that’s good for any sports person no matter your age to feel like you’re cruising just a little bit.

“I didn’t want any complacency to creep into my game, especially with a World Cup coming up this summer.

“When I saw Liana had got the director role at Rhinos, I just thought how cool would that be to really push myself, test myself, take myself out of the comfort zone of Wales, go and try prove myself to a new team and a new fanbase, to see if I was as good a player and as good a leader as I thought I might be.

“I really look up to Liana as a player and a person and I knew she’d be a special coach to work under.

“As soon as I arrived here and felt the northern love, everyone is so down to earth and friendly, I just love the atmosphere, it’s a really hard-working area.

“I bought into the culture here at Leeds Rhinos as well, it’s a family feel that the rugby league club and the netball club has adopted as well.”

She adds: “All Superleague clubs are driving forward in their professional development, there’s more contact time with coaches, more strength and conditioning and medical support, Rhinos had that professional outlook that attracted me.

“They’ve got a brilliant foundation which means they’ve got great community links, they’ve got those partnerships in place that help the actual athlete experience.

“And he coaching content from Liana and Maggie (Birkinshaw – assistant) is really detailed.”

Rhinos also have a long-term vision, something they have not had in the first two years of their existence due to coaching changes at the end of each season and the fact they still do not have a home arena.

As they did last year, the new season from February will see Rhinos play home games across the county with return dates set for the English Institute of Sport in Sheffield, Allam Sports Centre in Hull and first direct Arena in Leeds, plus the sports halls at Leeds Beckett University (where they train) and the University of Huddersfield have been added to the rota.

“What is good is that Liana is in place for three years so we can build and become one of the main teams striving for the Superleague title,” says Jones, who will take on a leadership role on court following the departure of veteran England international Jade Clarke.

“Jade was a huge reason Rhinos were put on the map. A few of us were gutted she was moving on but if you look at the quality of player Leeds have brought in, especially in that mid-court area, Caroline O’Hanlon with what she’s done with Northern Ireland and a Superleague champion with Manchester Thunder last year; Elle McDonald who has come over from the Adelaide Thunderbirds, great experience and already been picked up by the England Roses programme; those two alone to come in to replace Jade Clarke is really exciting and great recruitment from Liana.

“We’re not relying on one or two players now, hopefully this squad Liana has assembled has got huge strength in depth and competition for places that will drive performance.

“I’m 30 but I still feel like I’m learning every day. I’m always pushing my own standards and hopefully the standards of the group as well.

“It’s great Rhinos have a long-term plan. If you look at any of the successful clubs no one won anything in their first year. It takes time to set a culture, drive it and then keep getting better each year.

“There’s a huge potential up here, it was a travesty there wasn’t a Superleague franchise up here for those years after Yorkshire Jets, and Leeds Carnegie as well, I’m old enough to remember those.”

And there’s also plenty of football teams if Nia Jones ever gets tempted to put the boots on again.

“As professional as netball is becoming, you don’t really have time or the permission to play football in the middle of the week; you’re either training or recovering,” she says.

“Liana is really keen for us to do other stuff, whether that’s play other sports, she likes playing touch rugby, she encourages me to play a bit of five-a-side football.

“I still played a bit down in Cardiff and I haven’t thrown my football boots out just yet.”

Though she might not fancy rugby.