Neil Jenkins
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Neil Jenkins (born 8 July 1971) is a former rugby union footballer who played fly-half, centre, or full back for Pontypridd and Cardiff, Wales and the British Lions.
Jenkins was born in Church Village, Wales. He made his Wales debut aged 19 along with Scott Gibbs. Jenkins strength was his kicking, and many felt that he was not worthy enough to inherit the Welsh number 10 shirt of Barry John, Phil Bennett and Cliff Morgan. However, after criticism early in his career, Jenkins developed his tackling, passing and running skills and became a competent, if not absolutely top-flight, fly-half. Kicking always remained his major strength - in the 2003/4 season, he was successful with 44 consecutive kicks at goal for his club side, the Celtic Warriors, which was a world record.
Jenkins went on the 1997 British Lions tour to South Africa, playing full back in all three tests. His extremely accurate goalkicking enabled the Lions to stay in touch with the Springboks during the first two tests, allowing them to win both of them, and thus the series 2-1.
Jenkins also went on the 2001 British and Irish Lions tour to Australia, but was carrying an injury, English fly-half Jonny Wilkinson being the preferred fly-half and goalkicker. Jenkins did gain his fourth Lions cap as a late replacement in the second test.
During his 87 caps he scored 1049 points in an often struggling Welsh side. At the time of writing, 2004, this is the current world record.
Jenkins was left out of Wales' 2003 World Cup squad and subsequently announced his retirement from international rugby.
External links
- Planet-rugby (http://www.planet-rugby.com/stats/players/players_listing.phtml/p_r/ENG?setCode=archive&search_text=Neil+Jenkins&tournament_code=international&country=&scdate=1871&ecdate=2004&position=&sbdate=1871&ebdate=2004&go=Submit)
- sporting heroes (http://www.sporting-heroes.net/rugby-heroes/searchresults.asp?linkDescription=+matching+search+results&RugbyHeroName=Neil+Jenkins&RugbyHeroCountry=&RugbyHeroDecade=Select+One&SearchButton=Search)it:Neil Jenkins