The world-class Cardiff Blues loose head will be captaining Wales for the fourth time in his illustrious career, but he has yet to taste success as an international skipper. But the 31-year-old, who has won 85 caps for his country, doesn’t intend to slip up for a fourth time.
“The first thing I thought of when Gats asked me to be captain was that I have to break my record of three games and three defeats. But we are a very confident squad and we are looking forward to Saturday,” admitted Jenkins, Wales’ third captain in this season’s RBS 6 Nations.
“We could easily have lost one or two of the games so far, but we dug in and won them. That makes training more enjoyable and we want to build on that momentum.
“The expectation is all on us on Saturday, just as it was against Scotland at home. Italy will bring their strengths to the game, and we have worked on them early in the week, but it is all down to us imposing our game on them.”
Jenkins’ first took charge of Wales in the Prince William Cup clash with South Africa (12-34) on 24 November, 2007. He was captain against Australia (12-33) two years later at the Millennium Stadium and again against the Wallabies (18-21) in the 2011 Bronze Final in Auckland at the Rugby World Cup.
He joins forces with the fit-again Matthew Rees and Adam Jones in the front row as Wales coach Warren Gatland re-unites the 2009 British & Irish Lions test trio for what is going to be a tough forward battle. Scarlets skipper Rees, who missed leading Wales to the Rugby World Cup because of a neck injury, returns to hooking duties ahead of clubmate Ken Owens.
“Matthew has been unlucky with injuries and it is good to have his experience back in the side. Ken did very well on his first start against England, but Matthew has captained Wales and done a really good job for us in the past,” added Jenkins.
Gatland is delighted with the strength in depth he is developing within his squad and isn’t worried about starting his third hooker in four games.
“We were very happy with Ken Owens’ performance at Twickenham and if we had had to play him against Italy we would have been happy to do that. But if he’d started against Italy he would have had to have started against France,” admitted Gatland.
“This allows us to bring Matthew back in, give him a chance and put him in contention for the game against France. He’s having to fight for his position at the moment and it is one area in which we have a lot of depth at the moment.
“Matthew hasn’t played for a while and so we didn’t want to give him back the captaincy. There are a lot of things going on for a hooker, so we thought we would let him concentrate on those. There are some strong leaders and characters in this team.
“Gethin has taken over during games and it will take a little bit of pressure off Matthew not being captain and having other leaders around him. Gethin has really stepped up this week, has been encouraging the players and has had a rare smile on his face.
“He has a different leadership style to Sam. He leads from the front and is one of the most intelligent front row forwards I have worked with.
“We have good experience at half-back, when Rhys Priestland calls a lot of the shots, Jamie Roberts and Dan Lydiate have stepped up in leading the defence and Leigh Halfpenny is one of the best professionals we have at the moment.
“Being captain of this team isn’t the hardest job in the world because there are so many players capable of taking responsibility.”
