Jennings aims to bag World Cup spot
His first and final trial game starts here.
When Jennings steps into the seething cauldron that will be the Estadio Jose Amalfitani, the home of Velez Sarsfield, tomorrow to win is first cap, he hopes they will be the opening strides in his international journey. He loves it here in Buenos Aires, and it seems he was built for this kind of environment. Teak-tough, the proverbial groundhog that is Jennings won’t be put off by a hostile environment, but will relish the opportunity of facing the power and muscle and brute force of Los Pumas.
He’s waiting a while for his chance but it wasn’t until he decided to move to Leicester Tigers that he began make noises.
And none were bigger than this season, when he and two other Leicester men starting tomorrow, Leo Cullen and Geordan Murphy, were hugely influential in helping the East Midlands club to a Guinness Premiership and EDF Cup double and then to a Heineken Cup final where Wasps took the sting out of their treble hopes. The trio seemed to thrive in the high-pressure games and Jennings is looking forward to another tomorrow.
“It has been a great season, but one that fell short,” says Jennings. “We’re kind of hurt from that and a lot of fellows are looking back thinking they could have put something right. I didn’t play that well in the final. I was unhappy with my performance but it’s nice to know that now that I can try to end the season on a high.
“It’s been great with Leicester and performing well, but here it’s a completely different environment and a different atmosphere. I have to be able to train well and hopefully perform on Saturday.”
It has been an honour-laden season for homeward-bound Jennings, who was runner up behind Argentinean prop and Tigers prop, Marcus Ayerza, for the Guinness Premiership Player of the Year award. The cap he’ll win tomorrow will go nicely with those won for Ireland at Schools, under 19, under 21 and ‘A’ levels. But his best season in a Leicester shirt was preceded by a string of eye-catching performances for Ireland A in the Churchill Cup when, as captain, he led his country to victory over the England Saxons in the Plate Final. His leadership qualities were very evident in Michael Bradley’s side, Pat Howard instigated him as captain at Leicester for certain games and being a leader of the pack is something that seems to rest easily on his young shoulders.
“I enjoyed last summer with the Churchill. It was a great experience and there were more senior guys there who helped me along the way. I don’t think it’ll have too much bearing when it comes down to Saturday.
“It’s very different playing for Ireland ‘A’ and coming out to play the Pumas in Buenos Aires. It’s a massive challenge for me because it’s in a new arena. I’ve never played with a lot of these guys. But I’m looking forward to playing with them now.”
One of the player he is going head-to-head with for the out-and-out flanker’s ticket to Le Coupe de Monde this September is Keith Gleeson.
The duo will also be competing for the number seven jersey at Leinster next season.
“Keith’s a quality player. I know that from when I was in Leinster. I was watching him in the first Test. His workrate and lines of running are excellent, and he knows the game very well. It’s a big challenge for me, and it is a big opportunity as well. I’m really looking forward to it. It’s my first cap. I’m going to really try to enjoy the experience and try to really perform to enable me to get into further squads later in the summer.”
Everything is on the up now for the 25-year-old, but looking back he says he needed to get out of Ireland to resuscitate a career that had flat-lined at Leinster. “I do feel I’ve improved, I’ve grown up an awful lot and I think I’ve gained from the experience of getting out of my home-town and out of my comfort zone. I think I copped on an awful lot and realised in Leicester the work that’s needed to be done for this level.
“If people see that I’ve improved, that’s great, but I feel it was worth the experience of going over and certainly opened my eyes to a lot of things.
I’m delighted I’m here in Argentina and hopefully the things I’ve learnt along the way at Leicester will come out of my game on Saturday.”
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