{"id":208259,"date":"2025-06-23T17:53:13","date_gmt":"2025-06-23T17:53:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/208259\/"},"modified":"2025-06-23T17:53:13","modified_gmt":"2025-06-23T17:53:13","slug":"defence-coach-gethin-jenkins-convinced-cardiff-role-will-help-him-with-wales","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/208259\/","title":{"rendered":"Defence coach Gethin Jenkins convinced Cardiff role will help him with Wales"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Gethin Jenkins. Photo David Davies PA Images<\/p>\n

Gethin Jenkins says he has returned to the Wales stage a better coach after spending the last two years at club level with Cardiff.<\/p>\n

The former Wales and British and Irish Lions prop will be in charge of the defence as Matt Sherratt\u2019s side attempt to end a run of 17 Test defeats \u2013 a record for a tier one nation \u2013 in Japan next month.<\/p>\n

Jenkins has linked up with his Cardiff boss Sherratt, who resumes the role of interim head coach after replacing Warren Gatland during the Six Nations Championship, to become involved in a Wales coaching capacity for the second time.<\/p>\n

The 44-year-old was in the Wales set-up between 2020 and 2022 and held the defence coach role under Wayne Pivac before being deemed surplus to requirements when Gatland returned for a second spell in charge.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2018Grounding\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

Jenkins said: \u201cI\u2019ve learned a lot going back to Cardiff under Matt and other coaches there.<\/p>\n

\u201cWorking week-in, week-out, at a club or region gives you more of a grounding.<\/p>\n

\u201cGoing straight into it at national level is quite tough. It was enjoyable because of the buzz of coaching your country, the pressure of international games. No bigger feeling.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m taking things on board all the time in how I progress myself as a coach.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m seven years into my coaching career, which is still not a lot, so I like to think I\u2019m learning all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jenkins won 129 caps for Wales, the country\u2019s second most-capped men\u2019s player, and made five Test appearances for the Lions \u2013 playing in the 2005, 2009 and 2013 series \u2013 during a stellar career.<\/p>\n

He joins former Wales and Lions team-mates Adam Jones (scrum coach) and Leigh Halfpenny (skills coach), as well as Harlequins boss Danny Wilson (forwards coach) and Rhys Thomas (assistant forwards coach) on Sherratt\u2019s coaching staff for a two-Test series in the Far East.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2018Main attraction\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cIt was something I had to think about,\u201d Jenkins said of his Wales return. \u201cMatt asked me in Cardiff when we were walking for a coffee between sessions.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe people that were doing it was probably the main attraction, with Matt leading it. It\u2019s hard to turn down that opportunity.<\/p>\n

\u201cFive or six weeks where you put everything into it that you can. Go back to Cardiff and then it\u2019s business as usual.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe only thing I\u2019m giving up is my time off in the summer. I have had to change a few bits otherwise I would have been divorced!\u201d<\/p>\n

Wales\u2019 losing streak stretches back to the 2023 World Cup in France, and Jenkins admits the coaching staff have had to hit the ground running.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cIt\u2019s been an enjoyable two-and-a-half weeks, the boys have worked hard.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a good challenge in such a short space of time putting together a game plan. The plan is to go out to Japan and get some victories.\u201d<\/p>\n

Support our Nation today<\/p>\n

For the price of a cup of coffee<\/strong> a month you can help us create an
\n independent, not-for-profit, national news service for the people of Wales, by
\n the people of Wales.<\/strong>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gethin Jenkins. Photo David Davies PA Images Gethin Jenkins says he has returned to the Wales stage a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":208260,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5010],"tags":[748,4884,16,15,1764],"class_list":{"0":"post-208259","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wales","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-great-britain","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-wales"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114733961030466823","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208259","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=208259"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208259\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/208260"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=208259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=208259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=208259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}