Jenkins praises Welsh running game
Monday November 23 2009
Wales' greatest Test match kicker led the applause after Shane Williams and company did their utmost to prove running rugby is not extinct.
Neil Jenkins was on hand to watch Wales' victory over the Pumas, and while the game featured the seemingly inevitable bouts of so-called aerial ping-pong -- and the boos that invariably accompany such depressing tactics -- Wales also lived up to their billing among the sport's great entertainers. Argentina simply had no answer as Wales posted a record win for the fixture.
Williams twice weaved his magic at the Millennium Stadium, reaching 50 tries in Wales and Lions colours, while fly-half Stephen Jones' audacious opportunist score compounded Argentina's sense of bewilderment.
It all left Jenkins, the only player to amass more than 1,000 points for Wales, purring.
"I am a fan of rugby, as well as being a coach and a former player, and I want to see attacking rugby," said Wales' current skills coach. "We want to see attacking, running rugby. We are Welsh, and we like to play that way. Believe you me, I didn't kick the leather off the ball when I played, and I don't expect us to."
However, Jenkins also accepts the kick-chase territory formula is an approach that teams simply cannot ignore.
"We try to play a lot more rugby," he added. "But sometimes a kick is coming to you, you've only got two or three players and the opposition has seven or eight, what do you want to do?
"I am not a fan of it -- I like to see attacking kicks, a variation of kicks. We are not the only side that does it. Probably the best two sides in the world -- New Zealand and South Africa -- kick more than anyone else."
Having made a total of 17 line-breaks in their previous autumn games against New Zealand and Samoa, and scored one try -- from a cross-kick, ironically -- Wales at last found some freedom on Saturday.
And it was all sparked by Jones, whose quick tap-penalty saw him run 30 metres unopposed to Argentina's line after the Pumas wrongly assumed he would kick for goal.
"The space was there and he decided to have a go," said Jenkins. "A lot of sides are so used to teams just standing up and taking the kicks, but the quick-taps are on quite a bit and Stephen saw the situation. Instead of three points, it became seven."
Jones added two penalties and three conversions, with his all-round excellence again underlining that in terms of astute game-management he has few northern hemisphere peers.
Irish Independent
