Adam Jones has backed Warren Gatland to turn Wales’ fortunes around as they head into a Six Nations campaign on the back of 12 successive Test defeats.

Opening night could hardly be tougher for Wales – France in Paris on Friday – with Les Bleus welcoming star player Antoine Dupont back to the Six Nations stage following his Olympic sevens gold medal heroics last summer.

Wales have not won a Test since beating 2023 World Cup pool opponents Georgia almost 16 months ago, a miserable run that has piled pressure on head coach Gatland and his players.

Former prop Jones featured in three Grand Slam-winning teams – two of those during Gatland’s first reign as Wales boss from 2008 to 2019 – and won 95 caps, plus five Test appearances for the British and Irish Lions.

He is now back in the Wales fold as scrum coaching consultant on secondment from Gallagher Premiership club Harlequins for the Six Nations duration.

And the 43-year-old’s infectious enthusiasm and passion for his job look likely to make an immediate impression after he began work at Wales’ training base.

“It is my first day back, so it’s a little bit like school,” Jones said.

“There are a lot of players I don’t really know. I have obviously seen them on TV, I have played with a couple, I played against a couple. I played with one’s (Dafydd Jenkins’) dad!

“When this chance came up, I was dying to do it. Quins were amazing. There was no messing around and they said ‘let’s get it done as soon as possible’.

“I am a proud Welshman. It must have been 1991, but I remember Wales were playing France and we lost something like 36-3.

“At the end of the game I said to my mother I was embarrassed to be Welsh. It was followed with a backhander across the head!

“I’ve been in England for the last few years, and it is a weird dynamic when we have played England because obviously I’ve been working with guys like (Joe) Marler, (Kyle) Sinckler and Fin Baxter.

“I have obviously wanted them to do well. But I’ve wanted them to lose.

“It has been hard to see what has happened in the last couple of years, but the boys and the coaches are working hard to put things right.

“What he (Gatland) is good at, and certainly was when I was a player, was that backs-to-the-wall narrative.

“He brings players and teams together in a very short space of time and gets results out of them. He is exceptional at that. I am backing him to pull it round.”

Jones was substituted by Gatland during the first half of Wales’ clash against South Africa in 2014. He was dropped for the next game, and it turned out to be his final Test match, leaving him agonisingly short of winning 100 caps.

“We have kissed and made up,” Jones added. “It got twisted a little bit when I finished.

“Anyone who finishes their career is going to be upset, but what he (Gatland) did for me as a player was huge.

“I wouldn’t have got to 95 caps, won Grand Slams or gone on Lions tours if he hadn’t have come in at that time and pushed me in the right direction. He had a certain way of doing things with me. He got me to that level, and I will always be thankful for that.”

Wales have lost their last six Tests against France, and some bookmakers have them installed as an 80-1 Six Nations title shot this season.

“The whole country and the whole rugby world thinks we are going to go there and get pumped,” Jones said. “We are pretty confident we can go out there and do a job.

“It is a key thing out there if we can silence the crowd. It sounds a bit like Gladiator when Oliver Reed says it to Russell Crowe. If we can silence that, it is half the battle won.”