The back-row trio of Dan Lydiate, Tommy Reffell, and Taulupe Faletau have worked very well as a unit. And Wales defence coach Jenkins, who was widely considered to be one of the best exponents of breakdown play in the world during his illustrious career, has been impressed with their performances ahead of Saturday’s series decider in Cape Town.
“The biggest thing that has impressed me is that the three of them know their strengths, and they are executing those strengths,” said Jenkins. “From my point of view Toby has improved.
“He’s done a lot of work with me since he’s come in over the last six or eight months on his defensive stuff. Tommy (Reffell) has come in from a great club where he’s played week in week out, and he’s been seamless. Lyds (Dan Lydiate) we know what he does, and he’s offered us it in spades.
“It’s a good balance, and they’ve all got their individual strengths. They’ve put the graft in, the hard work in, and they are buying into a lot of the technical and basic stuff that we are putting a lot of work into.”
One man who has earned rave reviews is Reffell who was the official player of the match during Wales’ historic 13-12 victory over the world champion’s last weekend. The Leicester Tigers openside was sensational, and Jenkins believes there’s a lot more to come from the 23-year-old.
“It has been seamless,” said the former Wales prop. “He had his first cap, was outstanding, and then built on that last week.
“I think he’s humble enough to know it’s another challenge this weekend to put a third great performance in. He’s fitted into the group really well and taken it in his stride.
“He’s a grounded boy and I look forward to seeing him play many games for us in the future.” On the other end of the age spectrum is 34-year-old Lydiate who rolled back the years with a magnificent performance.
Lydiate was totemic, making 18 tackles, with his relentless physicality putting a stop to any go forward the Springboks had. “We’ve shown some great faith in him because he didn’t get much rugby before coming here but fair play he’s turned up,” said Jenkins.
“He’s basically delivered what we’ve asked of him. The other two who have started, and even Navs (Josh Navidi) coming off the bench, have offered us something which we haven’t had for a while.
“He’s excellent at what he does. He still realises there’s room to work on stuff and I’ve given him some feedback on where he can get better with it.
“There’s willingness to put his body on the line, and the stuff he’s been doing for a long time is coming to the fore. The challenge with him with where he’s at in his career is making sure he’s fit enough to be out on the field as much as he can.”
Last Saturday’s test in Bloemfontein saw Wales do what no other side has managed to do since 2016 – prevent the Springboks from scoring a try. As defence coach Jenkins has to take a lot of credit for this, but the former Wales and British & Irish Lions star insists there’s plenty of room for improvement.
“It’s a great stat but we try to review a game the same whether we win or lose,” he said. “We were close the week before, and it came down to small margins with the kick again.
“It was the same last weekend. For me it’s probably not something that I judge our defence on. There’s a lot of different technical parts that go into a performance.
“Again, the review process for me is what we did the first week, what we did the second week, and what we did the third week in terms of what can we get better, can we improve again going into the third test.
“There are areas we did go well and that’s probably one of them but there’s also areas we can still improve on. It’s very tough to win out there and it could have gone either way.
“I’m proud of the effort, courage, and attitude that the boys put in because we were under pressure for long periods in both games. We stuck at it.
“The biggest feeling was relief at the end of the game because we’d been on the end of a few last-minute losses but for me personally, yes I enjoyed the moment, but this coming week was in the back of my mind straight away.”
