Jenkins spells it out for Lions

PERHAPS it needed someone who had never been a Lion to put them straight.

If the 2005 tourists had not been aware of the honour and responsibility that comes with pulling on that red shirt, they were left in no doubt once Gareth Jenkins had finished with them.

Jenkins, one of Clive Woodward's midweek coaching team alongside Ian McGeechan and Mike Ford, was last Saturday given the honour of presenting the first jerseys of the tour to the players involved in the Bay Of Plenty match in Rotorua. The Llanelli coach grabbed the opportunity, considered a great privilege in its own right on Lions tours, and is said to have delivered such a stirring speech behind closed doors that he ensured the young cubs he addressed went onto the field as fully-grown Lions.

Josh Lewsey, who went on to put in a man of the match performance against Bay Of Plenty, scoring the first two tries of the tour, said the Welshman's words had given him a lump in his throat.

"We were presented with our jerseys by Gareth Jenkins," Lewsey said. "I love the guy. He is all heart and you can never knock the guy because he is so genuine. He wears his heart on his sleeve. All week we have been hearing what it means for players to play against the Lions. Well, I tell you what, pulling on that red jersey was a really choking moment.

"A lot had been said, too, about what it means to play for the Lions and I was determined to make sure that wasn't lip service.

"That is the first time I pulled on a Lions shirt and it was one of the proudest moments of my life. When I was young, I dreamed of playing for the Lions. It is a higher accolade than being picked for your country."

Lewsey was not the only one to have been deeply affected by Jenkins on this tour. Woodward admitted he had not known the 54-year-old Welshman before appointing him to his management staff but in just a few weeks already considered him a very close friend. And McGeechan, who has witnessed a fair number of presentations in his time as a Lions player in 1974 and 1977 and as coach in 1989, 1993 and 1997, said he was also moved by Saturday's pre-match ritual.

"He shows what the Lions mean to us when we're all on tour," the Scot said of Jenkins. "He gave a very powerful speech to the players when he handed the jerseys out and nobody is under any illusions how much just being involved with the Lions means."

Jenkins said: "I don't always think players are aware of how big an honour and a responsibility that it actually is. I think you're very close to it and it's great when it comes. I played with ambitions and had a fantastic rugby career, but the one thing I envied was the fact that people could come back, have lifetime experiences and lifelong memories of something that's unique.

"Playing for your country is probably your ultimate ambition and your goal but becoming a Lions attaches you to a tradition that's of a greater emotion and a greater level than most people ever get a chance to have a touch of, have a feel of.

"But it comes with responsibility as well, a huge amount of responsibility. The eyes of the world are on this trip and legends have been made out of being Lions. It's a fantastic opportunity these young men have got, but it's a huge responsibility as well."

Jenkins' own playing career was halted by an ankle injury after moderate success which saw him captain Wales B and tour with the senior side. Yet his impression of the Lions was formed much earlier, growing up idolising the Welsh heroes who every four years went away as stars but came home as legends.

When he was 20, and still a budding flanker working in the local steel plant, he toasted the greatest Lions of all, the class of 1971 as they arrived back in Wales having done the unthinkable beaten the New Zealand All Blacks for the first time in a Test series on Kiwi soil.

"I'll never forget the stories and being a part of the celebrations when the Lions came home in 1971, the first team ever, the only team, to have been successful in New Zealand. They were legends, I'll never forget the Welsh players arriving in Wales," Jenkins said.

"There were buses everywhere and the towns and the villages that the Lions actually belonged to were out, totally empty. The celebration was just unbelievable. I think that's the magnitude and what it actually does mean."

Five days earlier, during the Lions public training session at North Harbour Stadium in Auckland, Jenkins was called on to take part in one of the pitchside interviews with coaching staff, conducted by Sky Sports' Stuart Barnes, and relayed to those in the grandstand.

What had until then been a quite mundane exercise was lifted by Jenkins' explanation of the impact of legendary 1971 Lions coach Carwyn James.

James was, said Jenkins, a visionary coach, way ahead of his time who was never properly appreciated in his home country "until 15 years too late."

It was a powerful and eloquent statement and, most likely, totally lost on the crowd of mostly schoolchildren more interested in getting Jonny Wilkinson's autograph.

His audience in Rotorua last Saturday, however, was far more attentive and in no doubt about the possibilities that lay before them.

"If this bunch of proud young men," Jenkins said, "ambitious as they are, are successful out here, well, I don't think even they recognise and realise yet what could happen when they get back home."