Ernie Jenkins was a Welsh

Wales

Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...

 international dual-code international rugby

Rugby football

Rugby football is a style of football named after Rugby School in the United Kingdom. It is seen most prominently in two current sports, rugby league and rugby union.-History:...

 player. He played club rugby union

Rugby union

Rugby union, often simply referred to as rugby, is a full contact team sport which originated in England in the early 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand...

 predominantly for Newport and later switched codes by joining rugby league

Rugby league

Rugby league football, usually called rugby league, is a full contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular grass field. One of the two codes of rugby football, it originated in England in 1895 by a split from Rugby Football Union over paying players...

 team Rochdale Hornets

Rochdale Hornets

Rochdale Hornets RLFC is an English professional rugby league club from Rochdale, Greater Manchester, England. They currently play in Championship One...

. While playing for Newport, Jenkins faced the three major Southern Hemisphere teams, Australia

Australia national rugby union team

The Australian national rugby union team is the representative side of Australia in rugby union. The national team is nicknamed the Wallabies and competes annually with New Zealand and South Africa in the Tri-Nations Series, in which they also contest the Bledisloe Cup with New Zealand and the...

, South Africa

South Africa national rugby union team

The South African national rugby union team are 2009 British and Irish Lions Series winners. They are currently ranked as the fourth best team in the IRB World Rankings and were named 2008 World Team of the Year at the prestigious Laureus World Sports Awards.Although South Africa was instrumental...

 and New Zealand.

International career

Jenkins made his debut for Wales

Wales national rugby union team

The Wales national rugby union team represent Wales in international rugby union tournaments. They compete annually in the Six Nations Championship with England, France, Ireland, Italy and Scotland. Wales have won the Six Nations and its predecessors 24 times outright, second only to England with...

 against Scotland at the Cardiff Arms Park

Cardiff Arms Park

Cardiff Arms Park , also known as The Arms Park, is primarily known as a rugby union stadium, but it also has a bowling green, and is situated in the centre of Cardiff, Wales. The Arms Park was host to the British Empire and Commonwealth Games in 1958, and hosted four games in the 1991 Rugby World...

 on 5 February 1910 as part of the Five Nations Championship

1910 Five Nations Championship

The 1910 Five Nations Championship was the first series of the rugby union Five Nations Championship following the inclusion of France into the Home Nations Championship. Including the previous Home Nations Championships, this was the twenty-eighth series of the annual northern hemisphere rugby...

. It was a one-sided affair with Wales scoring 4 tries

Try

A try is the major way of scoring points in rugby league and rugby union football. A try is scored by grounding the ball in the opposition's in-goal area...

 without reply, including one from fellow new cap Billy Spiller

Billy Spiller

William John "Billy" Spiller , was a Welsh rugby union player and cricketer. His greatest achievements were in rugby, where he won ten international caps at centre for Wales between 1910 and 1913, but his short first-class cricket career was also notable as he was the first man to score a century...

. Jenkins was reselected for the next match in the tournament, this time against Ireland. Wales won again, this time scoring five tries, the highest number scored by Wales in Ireland. With two wins out of two games, Jenkins should have been part of future Welsh teams, but turned professional in September 1910, joining rugby league team Rochdale Hornets, making him ineligible to play union in future.

His first game for the Hornets took place on 17 September 1910, and on 10 December he was selected for his first rugby league international when he was chosen to represent Wales against England at Coventry. He played a total of four league international between 1910 and 1912, three against England and a single encounter against Australia at Ebbw Vale

Ebbw Vale

Ebbw Vale is a town at the head of the valley formed by the Ebbw Fawr tributary of the Ebbw River, south Wales. It is the largest town and the administrative centre of Blaenau Gwent county borough...

.

International games played

Wales (rugby union) 1910 1910

Wales (rugby league) 1910, 1911, 1912 1911