The 24-year-old Wales prop, who was comfortably the most significant front row contributor in this season’s RBS Six Nations Championship, has been named at loose-head for this weekend’s British & Irish Lions opener against the Bay of Plenty.
For Jenkins, it will be the first time he has pulled on a shirt in anger since the end of the domestic season; some six frustrating weeks ago. The Blues star is ready to make up for lost time and lay down a marker ahead of the first Test in Christchurch on June 25th.
“It has been really frustrating for me,” said Jenkins. “I would have liked to have played in Cardiff last week, but when I missed that match, I just hoped for a chance against Bay of Plenty. Thankfully I have got that chance and I intend making the most of it. For the past week I have been champing at the bit and to be honest, the first scrum and line out can’t come quick enough.”
Jenkins is one of five Welshmen in the side to face a Bay of Plenty team which has been bolstered this week by the return of eight of the Waikato Super 12 side. And alongside him in the front row is Scotland’s experienced hooker Gordon Bulloch and the little-known Bath and England tight head Matt Stevens.
“It’s great to pack down with two completely different people,” said Jenkins. “Most of the season you are with your region or with Wales and you get used to playing alongside the same players. Since the side was selected, I have had to get to know the other boys and that has been interesting in itself. To be honest, I think we have gelled well and we can’t wait to get down there and get on with things.”
With so many of the big guns named in the side; Lawrence Dallaglio, Dwayne Peel, Brian O’Driscoll and Paul O’Connell to name but four, there is a genuine feeling that the lions share of the players on show at the Rotorua International Stadium, have already been pencilled in for a possible start against the All Blacks in the first Test. Sir Clive Woodward refutes the suggestion, but Jenkins knows that he and the other fourteen on duty have an immediate chance to lay claim to the jersey.
“That’s the aim,” he said. “None of us came over here to miss out on the Tests so to play well and lay down an early marker will be all important. Unfortunately we don’t know much about them because we don’t have too much video evidence of their matches.
“Having said that, we know two things for sure. They are going to be tough and they will want to kick off the tour by beating us. Because of that, I would expect them to come at us pretty strong in the scrum. If they do, I am sure we will be ready for them. We have to be.”
