Paralympians positive outlook inspires Jones

The Ospreys utility back was one of eight Wales U20s starlets to visit athletes at the centre as Georgia Rugby Union committed to developing wheelchair rugby.
 
Sports Minister Tariel Khechikashvili, Paralympic Committee President Shalva Maisuradze and Paralympic fencing world champion Irma Khetsuriani were among those in attendance.
 
The Wales U20 players met paralympic athletes and tried their hand at both wheelchair basketball and table-tennis.
 
Jones admits it was an eye-opening experience and the positive outlook of the athletes in attendance has inspired him to make the most of every opportunity.
 
That begins with Sunday’s seventh-place play-off with Italy, the final game of Wales’ World Championship campaign.
 
He said: “It was a tough loss to take against Scotland so it is nice to get out of the hotel and meet the people here. It does put everything in perspective.
 
“We are so lucky with what we have and when you see some of the smiles on their faces and how skilful and competitive they are it is amazing.
 
“It’s completely inspiring and really opened our eyes. I don’t think any of us have really interacted with some of the paralympians as we have today.
 
“To play wheelchair basketball with them and see how skilful they are was really good and they absolutely hammered us.
 
“We’ve spoken about trying to enjoy the last week, it was tough after the Scotland loss and the boys were down.
 
“To get out of the hotel and meet some really positive and inspiring people has really kicked the week off and we’ll get back into training and go again on Sunday.”
 
The mixed ability athletes at the event showed little mercy on the Welsh starlets despite Tuesday’s loss and Jones was impressed by the levels of skill on display.
 
He added: “We had a game of four versus four wheelchair basketball. It’s been great just chatting to some of the people here and learning about their experiences and sharing some of ours.
 
“It opened my eyes a little bit, I’ve never experienced anything like that but it was a good experience. The competitive edge of some of the boys we were playing out there was absolutely amazing, it was good fun and something a bit different.”