Determined Jenkins praised ahead of ‘special’ return to Wales colours
WHY? Why did he do it? Why did he have to go for one more turnover? It is the question Ellis Jenkins asked himself many times in the hours and days that followed one of the darkest moments in Principality Stadium history.
Rarely has a match ended amid such awful scenes as those witnessed on that fateful day three years ago when the on-field fist pumps and cheers from crowd lasted only a matter of seconds.
Wales may have beaten South Africa 20-11, but something deeply worrying was unfolding near the halfway line. It was to have major repercussions for one man’s life.
Up in the coaches’ box, Wales defence coach Shaun Edwards’ eyes were immediately drawn to the stricken figure lying anguished on the turf following the game’s final act, as medics rushed to help him amid the post-match handshakes.
“It was obvious it was a big injury. It was horrific. You could feel the pain,” Edwards recalls three years on.
Jenkins’ team-mates were clearly disturbed too, as the flanker gasped on pain-killing gas amid the anguished cries.
An eerie silence filled the stadium as several minutes passed. None of the Wales players would leave the pitch until Jenkins had been hauled onto the waiting stretcher and was ready to leave.
“It was savage,” recalls Jonathan Davies, who was just yards away from the incident. “He didn’t deserve that.
“It’s so difficult when you see one of the boys go down like that.”
What made the situation more galling was the performance of Jenkins that day. Starting at blindside flanker, he would finish at number eight. Yet, despite neither being his favoured position, he was man-ofthe-match by some distance.
It’s difficult to overstate just how good he was, in fact. It was a display of turnover and tackling brilliance that seemed to have cemented his place in the Wales starting team a year out from the Rugby World Cup.
Then, Handre Pollard and Eben Etzebeth combined to clean him out as he made that final attempt at one more turnover to close things out.
Jenkins, in his own words, remembers hearing the “snap, the pop and the crunch” that would alter the course of his career for the years that followed.
“I was lying on my side and they needed to get me on my back,” Jenkins says.
“The physio has put one hand on my knee and one on my ankle and as I’m rolling, it’s just so painful.
“As I’ve rolled onto my back, the knee has clicked back into place, which was a huge relief. Whilst this is going on, the final whistle has gone.
“As soon as my knee clicked back in, I’m lying on my back just thinking ‘f***’, basically.”
For Edwards, it marked the loss of one of his favourite players.
“We defended really well in the match,” he remembered this week.
“The contest at the breakdown was... let’s call it competitive. Obviously, Ellis was at the forefront of that in his true fashion. We’d won a lot of turnovers.
“Then it was just unfortunately right at the end. One guy just went at him really aggressively and it ended up with that injury.
“It was disappointing both on a professional level and a personal one. Ellis was one of my best defensive players, one of my best jackalers, an intelligent player and he was becoming a bit of a leader as well.
“I’d also coached him at Cardiff a little bit, so I got to know him there and he’s a great lad.
“That was one of the reasons I kept in touch with him.”
Back to that day, and with the stadium now empty and Jenkins transferred to the medical room in the bowels of the stadium, the player’s family were quick to arrive.
Parents Adam and Tracy and sister Katie were present as the professionals began to assess the catastrophic outcome of what had just happened.
It was a difficult moment for Jenkins as the embrace of his sister moved him to the brink of tears. Minutes later, as he faced the men he’d just shared the field with, he could cope no longer.
“Alun Wyn came in and just looked at me: ‘I know there is nothing I can say but you were awesome today’,” recalls Jenkins.
“Then I got on some crutches and hobbled into the changing room for a shower. As I’ve crutched in, Thumper [Alan Phillips, Wales team manager at the time] has started clapping.
“All the players started clapping and I just burst into tears then. The pain and the realisation of what had just happened began to set in.”
Jenkins’ team-mates literally held him in the shower as Gareth Davies, Liam Williams and Gareth Anscombe took it in turns to wash him.
Fittingly, Jenkins’ main back-row rival that day was the same man he will face three years on, Springboks skipper Siya Kolisi.
Kolisi told the Western Mail of his respect for Jenkins and the remarkable recovery he has undertaken.
“I remember him,” Kolisi says without hesitation.
“He’s a hard player and a strong player.
“Wales outsmarted us that day. They took their opportunities and were physical for 80 minutes. There were moments when we got outmuscled.
“It is always tough to see a player get injured, whether it’s your teammate or the opposition.
“But he’s obviously worked to come back and fight to get his opportunity again. That tells you a lot about him.
“We play against each other, yes, but I’m really happy for him that he’s back and fully fit again. It’s always great to see players come back – it’s hard to come back from such big injuries like this.
“Well done to him and his medical team for getting him back to where he is today.
“I’m looking forward to battling against him this weekend. I’ve seen some of his games in the URC and it’s going to be a tough match.”
As Jenkins finally prepares to reenter the international arena three years on, it’s hard not to wonder where he would now stand if he hadn’t made that fateful decision to try to steal the ball one more time despite the game already being won.
Yet, with someone like Jenkins, there is no other way.
“That’s what makes these players special,” insists Edwards.
“They don’t think about maybe looking after themselves, it’s just: ‘Bang! get in there quick’.
“You think sometimes maybe he shouldn’t have competed at that ruck.
“But they’re not negative, they’re just positive: ‘I want to get another turnover, I want to compete at the ruck’.
“And if you take that away from them, they’re not the warriors that they are.
“That’s why they deserve so much respect, the bravery they have to go in there and jackal like that. Super brave men, true gladiators.”
Edwards has seen first-hand the impact a serious injury can have on a player.
His father, Jackie, became a Warrington rugby league legend, playing more than 200 games for the club before his career was cut short by a spinal injury.
So, he knows the struggles a player goes through and he admits he feels a sense of responsibility when one of his charges picks up an injury.
It is one of the reasons Edwards would occasionally check in with Jenkins, even after he left Wales to join France.
“Sometimes when the lads are defending and they get injured I feel a little bit more responsible, do you know what I mean?
“As coaches, it’s very important that you win the game, but it’s also very important that you get the lads back to their parents, wives or girlfriends in one piece.
“You want them back without any bad injuries. I always feel like that’s part of my job, besides winning the games.
“Because I’ve experienced it with my father. He had a horrific injury when he was 24 playing rugby league for Warrington and it affected the rest of his life, gave him depression and things like that.
“I’ve seen both ends of the scale. How it can impact your family life etc.”
Happily, Jenkins finally returned earlier this year and has now played his way back to somewhere near the form he showed before being so cruelly struck down by injury.
He is back in the Wales squad and, perhaps inevitably, his Test return will once again come in the No.6 shirt against South Africa.
Edwards will be watching and he’s full of admiration.
“Ellis is an outstanding player,” he concludes.
“A great defensive player but an outstanding attacking player as well, with the skill level he has and a great rugby intelligence.
“I’ll definitely try to watch his comeback game on Saturday because he has been through it, that lad.
“I’ve got nothing but admiration for him.
“I don’t think I could have kept going like that, as a player. I think I might have given in.
“I never had an injury as bad as that, but I know how harmful it can be mentally as well as physically.
“I’m just so proud of him coming back and that he didn’t give in.”
Whatever happens now, those who were there will never forget the trauma of November 24, 2018, or the personal sacrifice Jenkins has made in the three years that followed.
Today’s game belongs to him.