Jon Wells

Jon Wells (born 23 September 1978 in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, England) is a former English rugby league footballer and now a Sky Sports rugby league pundit.

At the end of the fourteenth season of Super League there were five internationals who had played in every season; these being Keiron Cunningham, Sean Long, Paul Johnson, Keith Senior, Terry Newton and they were joined in this achievement by Jon Wells.

Wells is a regular columnist for the monthly Rugby League World magazine which was for a time insightful about Harlequins and London but has since become a more general column about Rugby League themes.

By the summer of 2009, Jon Wells had made over 250 Super League appearances including 109 for the London club, 24 appearances for Wakefield Trinity Wildcats and 136 appearances for Castleford Tigers.

His longevity as a winger was unrivalled in Super League and comparisons therefore must be made with his peers in other sports. In many ways he was to Rugby League what Ryan Giggs is to Football and Mike Catt is to Rugby Union; these wingers having also played in all the seasons of their respective competitions.

Jon Wells was awarded a testimonial in the autumn of 2009. This made him the first player to have been awarded a testimonial by the Rugby Football League whilst representing a club in London or the South. He did not play for the club for ten years and was instead awarded the testimonial directly by the RFL. Rob Purdham has the distinction of being the only player in 30 years to be awarded this a testimonial by the club itself and from all players for the London Rugby League club or its former guises Harlequins Rugby League, London Crusaders and Fulham Rugby League club

Wells played his last game for Harlequins on 21 August 2009 having been carried off the field following a two-man spear tackle at Hull FC.

It was widely expected that Jon would announce his retirement at the end of the 2009 season given that wing is a position which demands pace and athleticism and he had persistently suffered injuries and the wear and tear associated with 14 seasons of impact in this tough sport.

Given his struggle to recover it was a surprise to many that Jon Wells attempted to play on for the 2010 season rather than prepare for his testimonial year.

December 2009 saw a series of events planned to support the testimonial and Jon was due to play a testimonial at Rosslyn Park on 16 January 2010 against Crusaders Rugby League Club but the event was cancelled. Wells persisted in his attempts to get fit and indeed was healthy enough to run a Triathlon in the Summer of 2010 but decided to retire from Rugby League and now works freelance.

Wells is now a pundit for Sky's Rugby League coverage.