TWO WEEKENDS AGO, Ireland hooker Neve Jones started for Gloucester-Hartpury as they beat Saracens to claim their third consecutive Premiership Women’s Rugby title.

Just six days later, the 26-year-old was in Ireland’s number two shirt for their Six Nations opener against France.

You wouldn’t have guessed that Jones had been involved in such a high-quality, physically exhausting club final only days before.

As ever, she launched herself into contact with energy and notched a try at the back of Ireland’s impressive maul.

“I actually can’t take much credit for it,” says Jones, Ireland’s vice-captain last weekend. “There were loads of strong women in front of me. They just threw me over the line.”

She also shrugs off the physical feat of backing up the Premiership final with a big performance for Ireland.

“I think at the end of the day, it’s rugby. You have four white lines and 80 minutes of rugby.

“The girls and coaches and management have been great whenever I’ve come back into the environment to manage me and incorporate me.

“We’re used to playing rugby week in, week out. It’s just a mindset thing – now we’re in camp, it’s for the green jersey.”

Jones comes across as a no-nonsense character. With 31 caps, she’s among the most experienced players in Scott Bemand’s squad.

And despite her relative lack of size at 5ft 2ins, the Ulster native is a huge defensive leader for Ireland. Jones is one of the best tacklers in the game, with an array of defensive skills in her armoury.

She delivers plenty of big hits but can also engineer choke tackles, can jackal at the breakdown, and is adept at barging after she makes tackles.

“It’s just a bit of craic,” she says of her love of defending.

“I guess being a middle child of three siblings that are close in age, maybe something like that.”

She gives her father, Dave, great credit for coaching her how to tackle and how to get stuck in physically. When she first started playing rugby, she was in with the boys at Ballymena RFC.

Jones scores for Ireland against France. Ben Brady / INPHO Ben Brady / INPHO / INPHO

Dave hails from Birmingham and played rugby union and league, so he knew about the contact element of the sport.

“He had us playing from the age of two or three in the living room, tackling each other,” says Jones, who has an older brother and a younger sister.

“I played mini rugby from six or seven. Being the smallest on the pitch, my dad was like, ‘We’ll work on the tackle.’

To this day, Jones’ dad sends her “a little spiel” after every game with his synopses of what she has done well and what needs a bit of work.

She’s hugely grateful for his influence and ongoing support. Jones still reads his analysis of her performances.

“It depends what it says, I’ll leave it at that! He’s got a good rugby IQ.”

Jones has been enjoying Ireland’s major upturn at the lineout this season. What was recently a big weakness has quickly become a strength under forwards coach Alex Codling, who joined last year.

Hookers often get blamed when things go wrong at the lineout, so there’s no doubt Jones is relieved to be throwing into a smooth-running set-piece.

Ireland scored all three of their tries in the Six Nations defeat to France last weekend from the lineout, with two direct maul tries and one back peel play.

“The lineout was a huge success,” says Jones. “I just think Codders coming in has done a fantastic job with us and there’s a full buy-in with all of the girls and we ask questions and we push each other and work really hard when we’re training together.

“Codders has done some great work with myself and the other hookers to improve our throw and be confident in that so I think a lot of credit to him. He has put time and work into us and put us in contact with people in the club to grow our strength away from here.”

As Ireland now look towards their round two clash in Italy on Sunday, they’ll be hoping for a repeat of the lineout quality and more of Jones’ impact around the pitch.