MAGNERS LEAGUE FINAL INTERVIEW RYAN JONES: JOHNNY WATTERSONfinds the Ospreys and Wales captain unwilling to give much away ahead of this evening's Magners League showdown

BEWLEY’S HOTEL, the old Masonic School for girls, casts a forbidding shadow over Ryan Jones as clouds hurtle past overhead. For which team, that sinking feeling has yet to be decided. The RDS, a drop kick away across the Simmonscourt Road and Jones, awkward and lethargic with suppressed energy, snaps to the command of his handlers.

Close enough to the pitch to smell the embrocation and the laundered shirts, hear the click of the metal studs on the bathroom tiles, Jones and Shane Jennings have to hold the tension, the nerves and the cameras.

Such days players like the Welsh number eight would care to miss, answering questions, trying to wish away the minutes and the hours.

The Ospreys and Wales backrow poses with the Magners League Cup, amply designed for several gallons. He smiles at the Leinster captain, a player he will happily stretch on the pitch today. Jennings smiles back.

Here they are, the two of them pressed together like duellists from another time, shaking hands and wishing each other good aim before they try to blow each other to oblivion.

Jones and Ospreys carry similar weighty expectations to those of Leinster, maybe more. Star- studded certainly, but also with a rich blend of countries.

Wales, Ireland, New Zealand, Scotland. But the Ospreys, like Leinster, are missing a trophy for this season’s toil, concerned about bagging the bridesmaid tag. They have been creating nicely but fumbling their own chances, like a lion in the middle of a herd, addled by the choice.

“We have created, done the hard bit,” says Jones obligingly but with little enthusiasm.

“Every one focuses on creating enough chances and then taking them. It’s the difference between winning and losing cup finals. It’s obviously something we have looked at and tried to address but it’s not something we’re going to dwell on ahead of tomorrow.”

There are always face-offs in these situations to foist the label of favourite on to the other team. But with a home game and most of the support, Leinster cannot duck their advantage. Michael Cheika’s side lost five of their regular Magners League matches, all of them away from home to Scarlets, Dragons, Glasgow, Ulster and Connacht.

They have a clutch of players retiring, a coach of five years leaving for Paris, a pristine home record and not a trophy in the house. There can be no lack of motivation.

But Ospreys are ambitious. They are not about to be overwhelmed by something as trivial as the odds.

“It will take a great team performance, a cup final performance,” says Jones. “The key is not to make mistakes and just control what we can. It’s going to be tough away from home. There’s going to be 15-odd thousand Irishmen cheering their team on. Got to overcome that, firstly. Kick on. Knuckle down. Get our house in order,” he adds, giving away few secrets.

“I think you do not play this level with the calibre of guys that we’re fortunate to have if you can’t cope with that environment. Good fortune . . . a lot of experience there and a lot of the guys have played in that environment and they know how to deal with it. It’s part and parcel of professional sport. It’s the same in any sport.”

Once voted the sexiest man in Wales, Jones, with Tommy Bowe, is in that made-for-mocking category of sexiest men alive. Despite that distraction the Bristol City junior footballer, who took late to rugby at 17 years old, has shown himself to be a leader on the pitch.

In January 2008, Jones was appointed captain of Wales by new coach Warren Gatland.

In his first Six Nations tournament as captain, he led his team to a second Grand Slam in four years.

While he was omitted from the 2009 British and Irish Lions tour to South Africa, he was subsequently called up to join the squad when Ireland flanker Stephen Ferris pulled out with a knee injury. Within days of arriving in South Africa he was declared unfit by the Lions medical team due to head injuries he had sustained in a previous Wales Test match.

That disappointment carried into a slow start to the season for Ospreys but by the New Year they were playing the way the sum of their parts suggested they should have been. They have slowly come around to understanding how to maximise such an exhibition of wide-ranging talent.

“It’s been the end of a long season so we all know what we’re trying to do,” he says.

“There’s nothing new to learn. It’s just a few little things and to get it up mentally and physically for this weekend. It’s looking forward, getting out there now in front of a big crowd. Enjoy the occasion.”

There will be no enjoyment if they don’t win. Ospreys know how to party and after losing to Biarritz in the Heineken Cup quarter-final they came to Ireland for a mini time-out. They just happened to beat Munster while they were here. But the point of it was to pull the squad back together.

The cup was gone, the league became a priority. And here they are.

“It’s something we try to do,” says Jones.

“We enjoy ourselves when we get the opportunity. We did have a good week (in Ireland). It was tough coming off the back of the disappointing loss out in Brive ... eh, eh, Biarritz, sorry,” he adds appearing to have successfully blanked out that disappointment.

He leaves for the sanctuary of his team. Another hour gone, 60 minutes closer.