“These are the last games Australia and New Zealand will play before they come to Europe in the autumn, so the timing of this trip was perfect for us,” explained Jenkins. “I have always believed in watching teams first hand and we saw the All Blacks in a particularly demanding environment against a difficult South African side.
“The game is changing constantly and one of the biggest challenges we face during the forthcoming Invesco Perpetual Series is to understand the way in which the Tri Nations sides play. The contact area is a major indication of how their results are going. The way New Zealand are playing at the moment is exceptional and they were nearly 90% efficient in the contact area compared to South Africa’s 65%.
“We have been up to 89% efficient in that area in the past, although last year we dropped off to 73%. One of the key things for us is becoming more efficient again. We have also noticed there is more kicking in this Tri-Nations series than ever before. In fact, 60% of the tries in the tournament have come from kicks.
“You aren’t seeing any more than three or four phases before players are kicking. It means we must be properly prepared for the type of game the Aussies and Kiwis are going to bring to us in November.”
While the All Blacks lost their only game in the tournament by a point to the Springboks last weekend, they still took the title by a street, however, Jenkins was pleased to note a slight chink in their armour.
“When I was with the British and Irish Lions in New Zealand the home side dominated the series through their line out. In the last year, though, there has been a dramatic drop off in confidence in that phase,” said Jenkins. “The line-out is a problem in their game at the moment for the All Blacks. South Africa took advantage of this lack of confidence and out of sixteen throws they took half of them.”
Jenkins and Davies will return to Wales on Monday and set about the task of preparing for the four match Invesco Perpetual Series in November. That will be the first of four stepping stones to next year’s Rugby World Cup finals in France.
“We have four building blocks as we prepare for France next year. We start with the four games in the autumn, then it is on to the RBS Six Nations, a summer tour to Australia and finally the Rugby World Cup warm-up games,” added Jenkins. “We want to find out exactly where we are by the end of the autumn. With Australia first up and New Zealand last, we will be able to measure our performance and expectations perfectly.
“There is a lot to do in a short space of time with only a year to go to the Rugby World Cup. We want to win every game, but we must challenge ourselves to show an improvement every time we play.
“I’m really positive about the way the summer went. We took a lot of young players on the tour to Argentina and left a lot of players behind to work on their fitness. Some of the test scores of the players left behind have been fantastic and we want them to get in eight weeks of good rugby and restore some confidence.”
