For Huw Jones, the fabled Principality Stadium atmosphere is not something he recalls with any great fondness.
“I’ve played there once, and it wasn’t great for me,” the centre said of February’s 34-7 Six Nations debacle in Cardiff, ahead of the revisit there this Saturday in the Autumn Tests.
“People always say how great the atmosphere is, and I suppose it is the sort of place that can be hostile if it’s not going your way, but no-one really played well for us that day.”
Jones was out of position of his normal slot at 12, but he didn’t think that made a tremendous display to either his or Scotland’s performance.
“I think it was just that game,” he added. “It was a bit of a shocker and we’re looking forward to putting it right this time.
“As a group we were fairly inexperienced then, Gregor had only a few games in charge and there were a lot of new players in that squad.
“We’ve had a lot of games together since then, and this time round there won’t be any complacency. Last time we’d had a pretty good autumn and had gone into the 6 Nations maybe believing in the hype a bit.
“And it definitely came back to sting us so we won’t be doing that again.”
But although many thought Scotland played too open a game in February, Jones doesn’t think that Scotland should sacrifice flair to play safe.
“I think we still want to stick to our style of rugby, but be more aware of tactical elements of the game,” he said.
“Last time for the first five or six minutes the ball didn’t go out of play and we were pretty knackered, I’m sure they were as well, but they took an opportunity straight after that and got points on the board which put us in a tough position.
“We still want to play our style, just be better at it.”
Jones missed the entire summer tour due to corrective wrist surgery, and feels he’s slowly getting back to his best and settling in at Glasgow.
“It’s good to be back in camp,” he said. “I feel like I’m building (form). I had a bit of time with the injury, had a good pre-season but I wasn’t able to do everything still coming back from injury. The games I have played I’ve improved each one I think.”
Slotting in alongside Adam Hastings has been easy due to his similarities to Finn Russell, he added.
“They both have that no fear approach, not scared to do anything and throw the ball about a bit, but they’re also really good 10s, they can control the game and play attacking rugby as well which is what we like to do.
“Adam’s been quality this season if you look at the number of man of the match award’s he’s had. He’s obviously in really good form, exciting to play with him.
“Familiarity is big for us. It does help me, Adam and Alex (Dunbar) have had a couple of games together for Glasgow this season.”
