Rugby Union / Five Nations' Championship: Jenkins comes of age to steal Elwood's show

Ireland. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15

Wales. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .17

WHILE the punt and the pound come in at just about evens here, all bets were off when Eric Elwood lined up his final penalty attempt with eight minutes remaining. After all, the Irish hot-shot had kicked five penalties in seven attempts and this was the easiest of the lot. Instead, he found an upright. Game over and time to trot out the headline reading 'Pipped by the post'.

Poor Elwood, poor Ireland, and ultimately proud Wales, whose own master of the place-kick, Neil Jenkins, had won his country the match fair and square. He missed one penalty opportunity, his first, and his fourth success, 11 minutes from the finish, saw the Welsh at last hit the front. Crucially, though, he scored the only try of a frantic and bruising match.

Little wonder that the Pontypridd stand-off could barely stand up as the celebrating ran deep into the night. Did he have any sympathy for Elwood? 'I don't think he had any for me last year,' said Jenkins, who failed with seven kicks in Cardiff while his new Irish counterpart stole the show gloriously.

On Saturday, however, the boot was on the other foot. Along the way from the Arms Park to Lansdowne Road, Jenkins has matured. 'I'm a changed person. I think I've grown up.' The toast of his team, in fact. 'The boys are chuffed to bits. There were people who didn't expect us to win a game this year.'

Now the Welsh have won twice and there is a Triple Crown at stake in March at Twickenham, not to mention the possibility of a Grand Slam on offer should they beat the French in Cardiff in a fortnight's time. Triple Crown? 'Well, I'm not even thinking about that,' Alan Davies said. But then the Welsh coach had second thoughts. 'Well, that's not true. It has crossed my mind.'

Good for him, although the cool fellow likes to keep things in perspective. 'The aim is to put Wales back on the map, particularly in world rugby, and the only test of that is not in the Five Nations but in the World Cup.' On the other hand, Davies said: 'I'd prefer to beat France to start with.' Which Wales have not done since 1982.

As for the moment, Wales sit at the head of the table, leaving the Irish to fight over scraps when they meet the Scots in Dublin a month hence. And the wake was well under way on Saturday evening, the long faces telling their own tale of doom and gloom. Noel Murphy, the Irish manager, tried his best, although his patience was being sorely tried by the Irish press. 'If you think I'm down in the dumps, you should see me when I really am,' he said.

Michael Bradley's answer to a question about how he felt when Elwood's potential match-winner hit the post was delivered with deadpan sarcasm: 'I suppose it was a bit disappointing.'. He seemed resigned to his fate, or was the word 'resignation' among his thoughts after the pressure from some quarters of the media? Mick Doyle, a former Irish coach, has certainly been having a dig or two by suggesting that Bradley's place in the side may have something to do with the fact that his father-in-law is the manager. Yesterday, Doyle wrote that if he was responsible for developing a new team, he would boot out Bradley and introduce Blackrock's Alain Rolland at scrum-half for the England game.

'We will get nowhere without radical change,' Doyle said. 'I do have some experience by the way. I started out in November 1984 with a new Irish team containing only eight new players.' He just failed to mention that, under his guidance, Ireland won the championship in 1985.

All this is painful for the Irish in a mental sense. The physical pain, though, was felt by the winners. Wayne Proctor was involved in a whiplash accident when Paddy Johns, the Irish No 8, crashed into him, breaking his jaw. In addition, Ieuan Evans put his shoulder out of joint, though not the right one which has caused the captain to undergo extensive surgery. Nigel Davies also suffered a groin injury.

Finally, back to the man of the moment and his try. It came after 25 minutes. Mike Hall had given Phil Danaher the slip and, from a ruck on the right, Rupert Moon slipped the ball to Jenkins. 'Simon Geoghegan stayed out and then all I could see was Paddy Johns. So I thought 'Keep it low' and I just managed to get over the line.'

Jenkins missed the conversion, but nothing else from then on.

Ireland: Penalties Elwood 5. Wales: Try N Jenkins; Penalties N Jenkins 4.

IRELAND: C O'Shea (Lansdowne); R Wallace (Garryowen), M McCall (Bangor), P Danaher (Garryowen), S Geoghegan (London Irish); E Elwood (Lansdowne), M Bradley (Cork Constitution, capt); N Popplewell (Greystones), T Kingston (Dolphin), P Clohessy (Young Munster), M Galwey (Shannon), N Francis (Old Belvedere), B Robinson (Ballymena), P Johns (Dungannon), D McBride (Malone).

WALES: A Clement (Swansea); I Evans (Llanelli, capt), M Hall (Cardiff), N Davies, W Proctor

(Llanelli); N Jenkins (Pontypridd), R Moon; R Evans (Llanelli), G Jenkins (Swansea), J Davies (Neath), P Davies (Llanelli) G O Llewellyn (Neath), E Lewis, S Quinnell, M Perego (Llanelli). Replacements: S Hill (Cardiff) for Proctor, 44; M Rayer (Cardiff) for

Clement, 51; R Jones (Swansea) for N Davies, 71.

Referee: A Spreadbury (England).

(Statistics omitted)