The making of a true Welsh rugby legend...
WHEN Neil Jenkins thinks back to his days with Pontypridd RFC, he still gets goose pimples.
It was a magical time that brought him friends for life, league and cup triumphs and wonderful memories... not to mention the Battle of Brive!
Now his huge contribution to the Sardis Road side, over more than a decade, has been recognised with his appointment as club president.
So it seemed an appropriate moment to catch up with the Wales kicking coach to talk about his Ponty days and his 30 years in rugby.
I go back a long way with Jenks, having been a cub reporter when he first burst on the scene. Indeed, I covered his home debut against Bridgend on Easter weekend 1990.
Inside a year, he was playing for Wales, launching a 91-cap international career that brought him 1,090 points, a Triple Crown, a Five Nations title and Lions glory.
When he finally hung up his boots in 2004, he moved pretty much immediately into coaching and has been part of the national team set-up since 2006, sharing in all the triumphs of the Gatland era.
But it was at Ponty that it all begun and his recollections are still crystalclear.
“It’s all vivid in my mind,” he said. “There are fantastic memories of playing and just being involved. Some good memories of putting on the back and white, that’s for sure.
“It seems a long time ago in one sense, but then in another it doesn’t.
“If you meet up with the boys or bump into them, it feels like you’ve just come off a game or just finished training.
“That’s what home game,” said Jenkins. “I’m not going to lie, we wanted to absolutely kick the living smoke out of them. We were desperate to.
“But we couldn’t. We were told categorically, there cannot be any fighting, there can’t be any trouble. So it ended up being a 29-29 draw.”
As fate would have it, there was to be a third meeting, with Ponty heading back out to Brive for a play-off in November.
“We were 18-0 down at one point, then we were winning 20-18,” recalls Jenkins.
“In the end, they just won it at the death. I was going mental and their scrum-half Philippe Carbonneau was just nodding his head.
“I was like, ‘ You horrible b*****d’. Not a nice guy. Great player, but horrible man.”
European glory eluded Ponty, but there were some historic domestic triumphs.
“The cup final victory over Neath in 1996 was probably the highlight,” said Jenkins. “We had worked hard for a period. We had lost in a couple of semis and a final. We were gutted in 1995 when we lost to Swansea in the final.
“We beat Neath, who were an exceptional team, and we went on to win the league the next year. They were great times.”
Jenkins made 237 appearances for Ponty in two spells, accumulating 3,185 points, and now he has proudly accepted the post of club president.
“I’m not quite sure what a president is and what the role is, I’m not going to lie!” he quipped.
“I will have to have a chat with Gerald [Davies] and Dennis [Gethin]. But if I can help Ponty in any way, shape or form, I am more than happy to.
“It’s something to be proud of.”
In addition to his club days, there were also plenty of memorable moments on the international front, so one wonders what people most ask him about when they stop him in the street or while he’s doing the shopping.
“It varies. A lot of people bring up Wembley in 1999 when we beat England,” he says. “It was an incredible day. People live in that type of time. We do look back a lot, but they were great days.
“There is a lot about the Lions too. People go back to 1997 in South Africa and it was a special, special time for me.
“That tour will take some beating because it was the first one after the game went professional and, of course, there was the Living With Lions video.”
After retiring from playing, Jenkins moved pretty seamlessly into coaching, first as an academy coach working with young kickers and, for the past 14 years, as part of the national team set-up.
That latter role has seen him remain a regular fixture on our TV screens, coming on with the tee whenever Wales have a shot at goal. Some people say coaching is no substitute for playing, but Jenkins doesn’t seem to have that mindset.
“I have never missed playing,” he said. “Once you are done, you are done. You had your chance, you had your opportunity.
“You can’t turn the clock back. You can’t regret anything. I enjoyed every second of it. I would never ever change anything. I have been incredibly lucky. I feel very fortunate. I’m incredibly happy and a very lucky man.”