Guest Blogger: The importance of Jonny Gray

Guest blogger The Pen takes a look at the Warrior's captain Jonny Gray.

Somethings in life are guaranteed. The sun rising and setting, the tide coming in and out, Jonny Gray making a tackle…

You think I joke but a look at the stats will show you that being tackled by the young Glasgow lock is almost guaranteed.

You see, Jonny just doesn’t miss. While everyone is talking about Itoje, Kruis and Alun-Wyn Jones as certain Lions, very few people seem to mentioning Mr Gray.

Take last Friday night’s demolition job on Leicester. Jonny made 16 tackles and not one of those was missed. That’s a phenomenal achievement against one of the top sides in the Aviva Premiership. Even more incredible when you consider that Leicester’s locks made 17 tackles and that was between the 2 starters and a replacement.

The thing is, none of this comes as a surprise to any Warriors or Scotland fans. We all know exactly what Gray the younger can do. This season Jonny has made 95 tackles and has so far missed 1. Itoje has made 76 missing 4, Kruis 37 missing 4 and Alun Wyn Jones 39 missing 4. Add Joe Launchbury into that mix and he has 33 and 2 missed.

I know that rugby is about so much more than tackling but as a starting stat that has to make you sit up and take notice.

For me, and I’ve taken criticism from Twitter for this before but it’s my honest opinion, Gray should be in the Lions squad before Alun-Wyn Jones. Let me back this up.

Gray has played 476 minutes this season to AWJ’s 269. He has 61 carries to AWJ’s 27, gained 62 metres to Jones’s 33, made 38 passes to Jones’s 23 and won 6 more lineouts.

Yes, stats only tell part of the story but for me, it’s pretty important part.

You also have to look at what Gray has done in a Scotland shirt and take into account that in the 5 games in the 2015 6 Nations he made 95 tackles and missed only 1, making the shortlist for player of the tournament. Forming a formidable partner with Richie, the Gray brothers have cemented their place as first choice locks under Vern Cotter and with Jonny’s club coach Gregor Townsend taking over as national team coach in 2017, barring injury, I don’t think we’re likely to see changes in that department any time soon.

Gray has worked tirelessly over the last few years to become one of the very best in his position. He’s had some fabulous mentors at Glasgow and Scotland over his short career. Kellock, Gray the senior, Hamilton, Nakarawa and you can see that each has had an influence on the youngster, especially former captain Kellock.

Gray took over his role as club captain and it is clear that he has taken a significant amount from his former 2nd row partner. Both speak with an eloquence and passion that makes you sit up and listen. Both would put their bodies on the line when required and would leave absolutely nothing out on the pitch. This year, as seems to be the trend at the moment, Glasgow have appointed Henry Pyrgos as co-captain alongside Gray and it seems to be allowing Jonny to get on with his job.

Only this week, Jonny was linked with a move to the South of France to join Toulon and, as they did with Stuart Hogg a week ago, the SRU are going to have to get their hands in the pockets and dig deep if they want to keep one of their most valuable assets. To let him go would be a disaster for Glasgow and you have to believe that Dave Rennie will be keen to hold on to such a valued member of the playing squad.

And he’s definitely worth keeping. Trying to find another young, Scottish lock who can play like this guy is a nigh on impossible task and having lost so many talented players in that position over the last 2 summers, we could do with holding on to Gray for as long as we can.

You can see more of The Pen's stuff here and catch him on twitter @ThePenGW