Russia will play Japan at Parc Eirias on Friday November 15 and Jones, who is also Newport Gwent Dragons assistant coach, is counting on some support from his countrymen to give his team a boost.
“We get together as a squad on November 6 at Maidenhead and play Oxford University on Sunday 10 before heading to Colwyn Bay to play Japan. After that we head back to London to play the USA at Allianz Park on November 21 to complete our November series of games.
“We played the USA and Canada at Eirias last year and had a great welcome so we are all looking forward to going back.
“There are great facilities there, and with the liaison officers and the support being Welsh it was a great boost for us, especially as we don’t get to host international matches in Russia in November.”
Jones believes Japan, who claimed a scalp against Wales in June will provide an extremely tough challenge for his charges.
“I expect the game to be fast and furious. I watched Japan play Romania a year ago and they were hugely impressive. They kept the ball in hand remarkably well and they have adapted the game to suit their strengths – they tackle and carry low and are extremely fit.
“Japan are 15th in the world at the moment, above Georgia, Romania and the USA who stand between us – they are the teams we need to be looking at beating in order to climb the world rankings.
Japan are also playing the All Blacks in November, and they are playing Scotland before playing us it will be a very stern test. Russia’s biggest defeat was also to Japan not so long ago, but we will be looking to give a good account of ourselves in front of what I hope will be another supportive crowd.”
Jones believes rugby is on the up in Russia and Eastern Europe – along with Japan.
“I was in Siberia for the Russian Cup final two weeks ago which was a high intensity game played in front of 5000 people with an English referee, while a recent international in Georgia drew a 50 000 strong crowd so rugby is certainly thriving there, while there is a huge amount of investment and effort going into Japanese rugby ahead of the 2019 Rugby World Cup so there will be a lot of interest around the game in Colwyn Bay.”
Russia v Japan
Parc Eirias, Colwyn Bay
Friday 15 November 7.30pm
Tickets are available from £5 for junior tickets and £10 for adults at Venue Cymru www.venuecymru.co.uk / tel 01492 872000 and Colwyn Leisure Centre tel 01492 577666
