Jenkins has long been one of Wales’ most experienced squad members, playing a full part in four Championship winning sides, including the Grand Slam seasons of 2005, 2008 and 2012.
Now, ahead of this weekend’s game with the Pumas, the loosehead is set to join Martyn Williams, Gareth Thomas and Stephen Jones in bringing up a century of caps.
“If selected it’s obviously going to be a big occasion for me. Argentina are always improving and it’s been a long old road to get there,” said Jenkins.
“Trying to stay injury free has been the main concern over the last year but I feel good and I’m looking forward to this week’s training. Your first cap is your big aim and as it gets nearer and nearer, you do think about the 100.
“It’s going to kick in this week but we have to get over the disappointment and pick ourselves up.”
Jenkins was speaking following Saturday’s 24-15 defeat to South Africa in the Dove Men Series opener. Leigh Halfpenny’s five penalties kept Wales in the encounter but in the end, three tries from the Springboks proved decisive. Fourie du Preez added the last of those scores in a man of the match display.
“There is disappointment but I thought we put in a decent performance,” added Jenkins.
“We always seem to start slow in the autumn but I thought we came back into the game really well.
“It was definitely one of the most physical games I’ve played in but a lot of the boys were saying how much they enjoyed it. Perhaps we fell a bit short with our composure towards the end.
“South Africa have come from the Championship where they’ve been on fire but if a few little things had gone our way, we might have won that game.”
Up against a juggernaut Springbok pack, Jenkins was typically busy in the loose on his return to the Welsh jersey. With Wales losing both Adam Jones and Scott Andrews to injury, the 32-year-old saw out the game alongside replacement prop Paul James.
“It was nice to get the jersey back on and I was feeling quite good going into it,” said Jenkins.
“It took me 10 to 15 minutes to get up with the pace but I really enjoyed it. I knew at half time I had to last the full 80 as we’d had two injuries but I think I did quite well.
“When your backs are against the wall you have to dig in and we did that. But winning is everything for us and the boys are gutted we didn’t do that.”
South Africa’s second try on Saturday, scored by hooker Bismarck du Plessis, came from a powerful forward surge. It was something Wales were unable to stop and Jenkins reckons the maul is an area they will need to work on ahead of the clash with the Pumas.
“We worked a lot on our maul defence but it wasn’t up to a good enough standard,” he said.
“We knew they were going to do it but we didn’t deal with it well enough. It’s something we’re going to have to go back to this week and it’s an area we have to improve on.
“It’s always technical in the maul, there are certain systems you can use to try and counteract them but we didn’t really do it very well.”
Tickets for Wales against Argentina are available via www.wru.co.uk/tickets from £30 for adults and £10 concessions. There is also a family ticket available (2 Adults + 2 Kids) priced at £70.00.
