Huw Jones

Huw Jones spent years as the outside centre Scotland could not quite fit in, and then found the partner who made him obvious.

The pairing with Sione Tuipulotu — a combination Scottish supporters named before the coaches formalised it — gave Jones the thing he had always lacked: an inside centre who occupies defenders and releases him onto the ball at pace, running the angle he has always run better than almost anyone.

That line, from depth, hitting the seam between thirteen and the wing, is his signature. It is also difficult to defend because it arrives late and Scotland attack flat enough to disguise it.

His route was unconventional — an early professional spell in South Africa with the Stormers rather than a Scottish academy — and it left him with a running game that does not look like a product of the system.

The defensive side of thirteen has been the long-running question. The attacking case has stopped being one.