Math Jones is a budding young outside-half from the former coal mining village of Garnant in the Amman Valley who has serious aspirations of becoming a professional rugby player.

The Amman Valley has historically been a fertile breeding ground of outstanding rugby players, with the legendary Shane Williams and current Wales star Jac Morgan both hailing from the area. Jones attended Ysgol Gyfun Maes y Gwendraeth in Cefneithin and played his junior rugby for Penybanc RFC in Ammanford.

Having been acknowledged for his potential, it was a difficult decision not to accept a five-year contract with the Scarlets, but he decided to challenge himself and push beyond his Welsh comfort zone to take up a scholarship at Gordon’s school in Surrey, where he is also part of the Harlequins academy.

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Jones is one of a whole host of young teenage Welsh rugby players who has decided moving across the Severn Bridge is better for his development. "I had offers from Gordon's, Llandovery, Clifton and Hartpury," he tells WalesOnline.

"I went up to Gordon's for a trial day but initially I had no intentions at all of going there. We didn't know anything about Gordon's at the time but they offered me a place there so I thought 'why not?'

"After the trial Harlequins came and said they were interested. They offered me to come down.

"There was a lot of thinking to do to decide what college to go to. When I was weighing it all up I just thought 'why not?' In the future I didn't want to look back and think 'what if?'

"I was a part of the extended Scarlets academy and played a few games for the U16s. I was up front with them that I'd been offered a contract with Harlequins and to be fair to them they came back and offered me a five-year academy contract.

"But I wanted to challenge myself, get out of my comfort zone and play against other top players in England. In the Ace League you play against loads of different academies, so I wanted to challenge myself in that area."

Jones' move to England was originally a big culture shock given his education up to that point had been conducted mainly in the Welsh language. At Gordon's the 18-year-old is studying BTEC sport and BTEC in business but their rugby programme was the biggest pull.

Jones is effectively already living like a professional rugby player and wants to make the most of the opportunity. "The coaching and the sporting facilities are very good," he said.

"There's only like 900 people in the school so it's not as big as somewhere like Millfield or Hartpury where there's thousands of people. School rugby is basically an academy rugby side with school.

"We train, do gym work, have recovery sessions, have analysis sessions. It's pretty much like being in a rugby academy in school.

"In school it varies from three lessons a day to five lessons a day. In the night at 6pm-7.30pm is when you do your homework.

"You have to be in your room or the library to do your work so balancing work isn't really a problem because you have plenty of time away from rugby to do your work. With regards to Mondays you have gym sessions during your free period in the school day.

"We train on a Monday night, have a game on a Wednesday, then do analysis and recovery work on Thursday, then we train on Friday and Saturday. From September to December I'll play in the Ace League for my school Gordon's.

"You play against teams like Hartpury, Beechen Cliff and Exeter College. We won that competition a few weeks ago by beating Hartpury in the final.

"After that, from January to mid-February, I'm playing in the Premiership Rugby U18s Academy League for Harlequins U18s where we play against other Premiership clubs. We play teams in the south and then depending where you finish we will play teams in the north.

"So, we will play the likes of Sale, Northampton and Newcastle."

Jones trained with Wales U18s last December, February and March and played in a development game against Scotland in March.

He made the cut for the 32-man squad prior to the U18 Six Nations squad being named but before the final squad was announced he had to undergo an MRI scan which revealed a torn meniscus. Despite being based across the bridge Jones' goal is to represent Wales at age-grade level and believes his move to England has made him a better player.

"I've always been more of an attacking fly-half," said Jones when asked to describe himself as a player. "I think moving to England has really improved my game management, because in the Ace League every game matters so much, which means that part of my game has had to improve significantly.

"In England one mistake or one poor kick can lead to a try that can cost you the game. It's about game management, knowing when to kick and knowing when to run, this part of my game has improved a lot.

"Before going to Gordon's my focus was to attack from anywhere but I quickly learned that in a big game that's not going to work every time. If I can I will attack but I've learnt that sometimes it's right to boot the ball up into the air and chase because that's a massive thing in the modern game.

"I'd compare myself to someone like Fin Smith. Coming into a different environment has helped my confidence.

"My long-term goal is to become a professional rugby player. In the short term there's possibly going to be a Wales U19s camp in March or April and I'd like to make that.

"Making the Wales U20s squad this year is not unrealistic but there is a lot of competition at outside-half at the moment so playing for the U19s is the first goal. But I want to play well for Harlequins U18s and get a professional contract with Harlequins.

"As a proud Welshman it is a big target of mine to play for Wales. A lot of boys who go over the bridge still want to play for Wales but the main aim is to try to get a contract after the academy league and see where it goes."

If one thing is for sure Jones won't die wondering and is a player Welsh rugby fans should keep a close eye on.