Having been an under-14 Scottish boxing champion and a Pro12 winner with Glasgow Warriors, Jon Welsh claimed a third gold medal in as many sports last weekend at the grand old age of 37.
The former Warriors and Newcastle Falcons prop, who earned 12 Scotland caps, finished top of the pile in the Ultra Heavyweight Masters 2 category at jiujitsu’s British Open in Manchester.
Welsh jokes that the category is for “fat oldies” but does point out that he is now some 20kg (3st 2lb) lighter than his oval-ball fighting weight of 125kg (19st 9lbs).
This was his first competition in a sport he took up purely for some “dad fitness” to keep him ticking over after injury forced him to retire from rugby in 2021. Welsh’s weekends are generally taken up by the demands of the wine business — Jesmond Wine Co — which he and his wife Jen now run in the northeast of England.
“The guys at my gym asked me if I fancied competing, but I tend to be working when the competitions are. Three or four months ago, I said, ‘well, what’s the biggest tournament of the year’, and they were like, ‘the British Championships in Manchester’. I said I would book a Saturday off and go for it.
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“The first guy I fought threw me about like an empty trackie. I went to grab his lapels — getting your grips as they call it — and in the blink of an eye I was upside down. I felt light as a feather. There was no effort to it, just pure technique and he flung me over his shoulder.
“I knew straight away I wasn’t going to get any of the judo sweeps I’d been practising so I rugby tackled him. But again he managed to flip me over his head and we scrambled back to our feet.
“One of the coaches, another heavyweight, then said to grab him by the gi [uniform] and pull him towards you so it forces his weight back onto his heels, then you can do your double-leg, which is basically just a rugby tackle. I did that and he did his ribs and tapped out [submitted]. The final was against a guy who looked about 130kg and was a good bit taller than me. But I was able to get him on the deck, choke him and get the win.”
Welsh is quick to praise the influence of Chris Short, the head coach of Alliance Newcastle, the jiujitsu gym where he first tried out the sport with his former Falcons team-mates Will Welch and Sam Lockwood, who is now an academy coach at Leicester Tigers.
“It was either Crossfit or jiujitsu I was going to get into — they’ve got that cultish thing about them. If someone does Crossfit, they tell you within ten seconds, and I didn’t want to be one of those!
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“Jiujitsu is brilliant for a blow. You’re absolutely knackered at the end of the sessions. Because of the shop, I’m only going twice a week to classes that suit me, whereas you’ve got guys who go every night. It’s a real mix of everyone: policemen, engineers, accountants, sparkies, tradies, pharmacists, the works.
“For the first couple of months you don’t know what you’re doing, then something clicks and you start getting into the swing of it. The rugby definitely helps because you’re used to the contact.”
Welsh was always exceptionally strong, particularly in the set piece, and was an influential figure in that 2015 Scotstoun title which remains the only piece of major silverware won by a Scottish club in the professional era.
He had long endeared himself to the Kingston Park crowd as well, when a run of grievous misfortune before, during and straight after Covid forced him to call it quits.
The trouble began when Welsh suffered a 14cm tear in his calf in a cup match against Exeter. The plan was to make it back in time to feature in the Falcons’ Gallagher Premiership semi-final, but the calf ballooned to such an extent that Welsh, the one-time electrician, was sent for further scans. These uncovered a blood clot and meant he was put on blood-thinning medication for three months.
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While he took the Rivaroxaban, Welsh was unable to take part in contact training, for fear he could suffer cuts. With Falcons now embroiled in a relegation battle, he was desperate to play his part, and came back into the starting line-up that November, only to sustain a meniscus tear in his right knee. Not long after his operation, he “jolted” his leg while in bed asleep and the stitches all came loose.
Initially, the expectation was that this mishap would add only another four to six weeks to Welsh’s recovery, but after his calf began to swell again, a second blood clot was identified.
He made it back into training at the start of Newcastle’s Championship season, 2019-20, only to suffer a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament during an unopposed session.
Welsh got himself fit again and had agreed a move to Gloucester in March 2020 just as rugby — and the wider world — shut down. He spent a few months at Bath without getting a game before Falcons re-signed him on a short-term deal. The final indignity came 12 minutes into his very first match back, against Leicester in March 2021.
“I hadn’t played for the best part of 2½ years, but the club had a front-row injury crisis and they didn’t want to throw a young boy in against Ellis Genge [the Tigers loose-head prop]. I was hit at the side of the ruck, dislocated my shoulder and that was me. I knew then that my body had had enough.
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“I still get grief from the calf — it’s forever swelling up then going back down. The clot is in me forever. It’s scarred over, but it’s part of me now. My knees and shoulders have had multiple operations over the years as well, so they’re always going to hurt, but as long as you keep active, keep moving, it’s fine.”
Welsh’s interest in wine came about through his friendship with Chris Fusaro, his former Glasgow and Scotland team-mate who now helps run the family business, Luvians Bottleshop, which has been a fixture of the Fife scene for decades.
“I never really liked wine before — it just tasted like vinegar to me,” Welsh revealed. “One night back in 2011, I went to Fuzzy’s house for dinner, he let me try a glass of one of theirs and I was like, ‘that’s absolutely beautiful, send me a case’.
“People who drink wine and buy it from the supermarket don’t know about it the way that Fuzzy showed me. I went up and did a week’s work experience with Fuzzy. They’ve been my mentors in the wine trade. I then did my WSETs [Wine and Spirit Education Trust] qualifications.
“Like when I was a sparky at college, you learn so much more on site on the tools rather than what you’re getting taught in the classroom. We’ll be three years open in November and I’ve learned so much. I’ve never had a day yet when I’ve gone in and thought, ‘I can’t be bothered with this’.”
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Anyone who ever listened to Welsh in a dressing room or from close to the touchline might be surprised by the velvety tones and terms he reaches for when asked to describe the wine he drank to celebrate last week’s success. For the record, it was a Domaine Chevalier Ladoix Rouge, a red burgundy where “I was getting rich cherry with raspberry notes and on the finish a subtle hint of cinnamon.” Of course it was.
He and Jen are both from Newton Mearns but have settled on Tyneside. They love the mix of city, countryside and coastline that is all within striking distance and business is booming.
“If you can wake up in the morning and look forward to what you’re doing, that’s half the battle. I was lucky to have that with rugby, and now I’ve got it with wine as well.”
And the awards keep rolling in.