Dafydd Jenkins: 'I am not playing the game to lose'

Dafydd Jenkins says the emphasis is on hard work for Wales after green shoots of recovery surfaced in their performance against Guinness Six Nations title favourites Ireland.

Wales 15th successive Test match defeat had no resemblance to the previous 14 as they defied being widely written off with a display that showcased ambition, creativity, character and resilience.

Interim boss Matt Sherratt worked a minor miracle to mould a team after just four training sessions into one that appeared capable of winning again.

That ability had largely disappeared under Warren Gatland, who oversaw just six wins in 26 Tests and departed within 72 hours of a dire defeat against Italy.

Wales were reduced to ruins in Rome, yet Sherratt instilled belief and introduced a new attack structure that his players bought into with relish. The combination almost proved too much for one of the world’s best teams.

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“There is confidence in terms of the way we played. Just hearing how the crowd were, I think they all saw that as well,” Wales lock Jenkins said.

“We really wanted to show the crowd how much we wanted it in terms of our emotion and how proud we are to play for Wales. Hopefully, we did that.

“There were some difficult conversations last year, but we are just pushing to move forward.

“I am not playing the game to lose, I promise you that now. If we didn’t believe in this group of players, there is no point going out on the pitch, is there?

“We understand it is not just going to fall into place for us, we are going to have to work extremely hard. The Six Nations is very competitive.

“Ireland are one of the top teams in the world, and if we are competing with them we are in a good place at the moment.

“The learnings we have taken individually and as a team are going to be huge for us in terms of you learn a lot when times are hard.”

Next up are Scotland at Murrayfield, where Wales have won on six of their last eight visits, followed by England in Cardiff a week later.

And Sherratt’s team can tackle those assignments with optimism that the long losing streak could soon be a statistic consigned to history.

“Obviously, we are disappointed with the result. It’s never nice losing, and in your home stadium,” Exeter forward Jenkins added.

“But there were some real positives in that performance in terms of the way boys have picked up our new shape, and something we can really look forward to getting better at, moving forward.

“We are going to work hard to make sure we come out the other side of those results, because it is all about results. It was before, and it still is now.”