David "Dai" 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...

 dual-code international rugby football

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:...

er who played 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...

 for Swansea

Swansea RFC

Swansea Rugby Football Club is a Welsh rugby union team which plays in the Welsh Premier Division. Its home ground is St Helens Rugby and Cricket Ground in Swansea. The team is sometimes known as The Whites because of the primary colour of the team strip...

 and 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...

 for Leeds RLFC

Leeds Rhinos

Leeds Rhinos is an English professional rugby league football club based in Leeds, West Yorkshire. The club won the 2011 Super League and became the most successful club in the Super League era, beating St Helens 32-16 on 8th October 2011. Formed in 1890, Leeds competes in Europe's Super League...

, and representing internationally in both sports.

Rugby career

Jenkins joined Swansea from Neath

Neath RFC

Neath Rugby Football Club is a Welsh rugby union club which plays in the Welsh Premier Division. The club's home ground is The Gnoll, Neath. The first team is known as the Welsh All Blacks because of the team colours: black with only a white cross pattée as an emblem...

 in 1924, and while with Swansea faced two touring international teams. In 1927 he played against the New Zealand Māori rugby union team

New Zealand Maori rugby union team

New Zealand Māori is a rugby union team that traditionally plays teams touring New Zealand. A prerequisite for playing in this team is that the player is to have Māori whakapapa or genealogy. In the past this rule was not strictly applied. In the past non-Māori players who looked Māori were often...

 and then in 1927 the New South Wales Waratahs

New South Wales Waratahs

The New South Wales Waratahs are an Australian rugby union football team, representing the majority of New South Wales in the Super 15 Super Rugby competition...

. Jenkins gained his first cap 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...

 team when he was selected to face the Waratahs again in their 1927 tour. Jenkins only other Welsh union cap was in the 1929 Five Nations Championship

1929 Five Nations Championship

The 1929 Five Nations Championship was the fifteenth 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 forty-second series of the annual northern hemisphere rugby...

 when he was chosen to face England on January 19. Under the captaincy of Ivor Jones

Ivor Jones

Ivor Egwad Jones CBE was a Welsh rugby union player who played as a back-row forward, mainly at flanker, for Llanelli and won 16 caps for Wales, three of them as captain....

, Wales lost their eighth consecutive game at Twickenham

Twickenham Stadium

Twickenham Stadium is a stadium located in Twickenham, in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. It is the largest rugby union stadium in the United Kingdom and has recently been enlarged to seat 82,000...

 with the final score 8-3 to England. Jenkins may have gained further caps but when the next Welsh game was played on the 2 February, Jenkins was playing rugby league for Leeds RLFC

Leeds Rhinos

Leeds Rhinos is an English professional rugby league football club based in Leeds, West Yorkshire. The club won the 2011 Super League and became the most successful club in the Super League era, beating St Helens 32-16 on 8th October 2011. Formed in 1890, Leeds competes in Europe's Super League...

, having switched codes for £370, (based on increases in average earnings, this would be approximately £70,500 in 2009). He went on to represent against Australia in the 1929 Ashes series.

Genealogical Information

David "Dai" Jenkins, Snr. is the father of the rugby league footballer, David "Dai" Jenkins, Jr.

David Jenkins (rugby league)

David "Dai" Jenkins, Jr. was a Welsh rugby union and professional rugby league footballer of the 1930s and '40s who at club level played rugby union for Cardiff RFC, and at representative level has played rugby league for Great Britain, and Wales, and at club level for Leeds, playing at , i.e...