Prop Jenkins inspirational

Lions prop Gethin Jenkins scores a try against the Wellington Lions.

It was the sort of try normally reserved for outside backs or, at the very least, loose forwards. Here was prop Gethin Jenkins popping up on the shoulder of Martin Corry to score a well-worked try against Wellington after Dwayne Peel had made a break from a lineout.

It's not an isolated incident. In this year's Six Nations he burst from a ruck to charge down a clearing kick against Ireland to then regather and score a crucial try for Wales in their Grand Slam-winning season.

It doesn't stop there, either. On more than one occasion on this Lions tour, the 24-year-old prop has popped up in midfield, claiming high balls or running with the pill in hand as if he was a loose forward. There is nothing wrong with that, of course, it's just that props aren't normally seen too much in a game.

They whack into their opposites in scrums, lift oversized team-mates skywards in lineouts and clear out anyone daring to go near the ball in the rucks and mauls with the sort of vigour normally associated with a wrestler (not professional, mind).

Jenkins, though, is a little different. After all, he started his rugby career in the centres as a teenager before swiftly moving into the forwards as his body sent him the clearest message that a life in the fast lane was an impossibility.

"Every player will tell you that they want to get their hands on the ball," Jenkins explained. "I'm just like any back or back-rower - I want to get involved."

The loosehead has certainly been involved on tour to date and actually emerges as one of the busier tourists in the bulging squad of 51 players.

He's played in six of the Lions' nine games to date, including starts in the first two tests, and has kept the likes of Andy Sheridan and Graham Rowntree at bay.

Despite having turned out 31 times for Wales and taking on grizzled Northern Hemisphere and South African props, he admitted he came up against something quite different in All Blacks opposite Carl Hayman.

"He is definitely the biggest guy I have propped against and he's a big, strong guy technically and physically," the man known as Melon explained. "They [the All Blacks] are a powerful outfit."

In prop-speak, that can be translated into what most people think of the All Blacks hard man - "he's a beast of a man who I have the utmost respect for".

In turn, Hayman has been deadpan about his opponent. "He's going all right," was Hayman's straightforward assessment of his opposition. "He's the sort of prop you expect from that part of the globe."

Jenkins, however, can look back on his association with Kiwis for helping him get to where he is today. All Blacks coach Graham Henry first introduced him to the Welsh set-up before Steve Hansen gave him his debut against Romania in November 2002, shifting him from tighthead to loosehead in the process. He also came under the influence of All Blacks scrum guru Mike Cron, who travelled to Wales in the time of Henry and Hansen to help out with the finer points of front row play.

Like many props, Jenkins will likely get better with age but he can already look back on this Lions tour with quiet satisfaction.

He will, though, never be a flying wing or explosive loosie that he would so desperately like to be but that doesn't mean Jenkins won't die trying.

- HERALD ON SUNDAY