JENKINS TO PLAY ON WITH BLUES
GETHIN Jenkins is to extend his already extraordinarily long career by signing a fresh contract with Cardiff Blues that will see him playing top flight professional rugby at the age of 38.
The Wales and Lions prop is believed to have penned a one-year extension that will keep him a member of the Arms Park squad until the end of the 2018-19 campaign.
Jenkins has been a senior professional for 17 years having begun his career with Pontypridd before the inception of regional rugby which saw him play for Celtic Warriors and then the Blues, with one season at Toulon in 2012-13.
He is the current Wales cap record holder having made 129 appearances for his country and also played five Tests for the 2005 and 2009 Lions.
While Jenkins has understandably faded out of Warren Gatland’s Wales plans as the 2019 World Cup looms, he is still a big influence in a Blues squad which is finishing the current season strongly and will be led by Australian coach John Mulvihill from this summer.
Jenkins has played 11 times for his region this season and 193 times in all since joining from the Warriors in 2004.
Meanwhile the Blues have reportedly done all they can to try to persuade George North to join them from Northampton Saints.
North is returning to the Welsh game on a dual contract but his precise destination has been the subject of conjecture. The Blues are keen to add him to their roster but face competition from the Ospreys who are also ready to make the Wales and Lions wing an offer.
A Blues source told The Rugby Paper: “We’ve done everything we can. The ball is firmly in George’s court.”
The capital city region’s head coach for next season, John Mulvihill, is said to have made a personal appeal to North to get on board in Cardiff.
The 73-cap player is mulling over the Blues’ proposals, but he is also aware there is clear interest from the Ospreys.
Currently in the process of appointing a new head coach to succeed Steve Tandy, the Liberty Stadium region hope they will be able to shortly present North with a vision of their plans to revitalise themselves.
North’s silence offers Ospreys supporters some hope that the player is holding out for a switch to Swansea.
He has close friends in both camps for next season — Sam Warburton at the Blues, Scott Williams at the Ospreys — and whichever region he joins will hope to take advantage of the huge commercial potential of one of the most marketable players in world rugby.
The Welsh Rugby Union are set to pay 60 per cent of North’s wages, with his new region picking up the rest.