HE was strong in defence against Bathurst Panthers, he celebrated his 18th birthday then he scored an impressive hat-trick against Orange Hawks - now what will come next for Jayden Jenkins?
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Just like the rest of his St Pat's team-mates, the red-headed winger has enjoyed a strong start to the new Western Youth League under 18s competition.
While noted Saints stars such as fullback Ash Cosgrove and halfback Tyler Colley weaved their magic in the 28-7 win over Panthers last Wednesday and in Sunday's 42-0 triumph against Orange Hawks, they have not been the only players in blue and white to impress.
Jenkins' efforts in both attack and defence have been solid, joining Cosgrove in scoring a treble against the Hawks.
"He was a young bloke, I didn't know where he was going to play or what I was going to do with him, but last year I put him on the wing and he did a fantastic job for me," Pat's coach Kevin Grimshaw said.
"He's just getting better and better. One of his tries, he took and intercept and ran 80 yards from a good read of play, he knew where it was going to go and read it well.
"They were all good tries. Tyler kicked a cross-field ball and he out-leaped the other winger and scored in the corner - it was a beautiful kick, like one of those NRL ones - and the other try he had to do a fair bit of work as well. He scored in the corner with a couple of kids hanging off him."
Before Jenkins' attacking highlights, it was strong defence that was the feature in the opening quarter of the match against Hawks.
Having withstood that early pressure, the Saints pushed out to a 20-0 half-time lead then went on with the job after the long break.
"Our defence is winning us the games, yeah we are putting points on, but it's been our defence that's winning the games," Grimshaw said.
"They [Hawks] give it to us in that first quarter, they had a lot of ball, we made a couple of mistakes and they were trying to get to our line, but we just defended very, very good.
"If you were watching it, you wouldn't have looked at the scoreboard and thought it was 42-0. Both sides were pretty willing in the middle of the ruck and they had a couple of really good-sized kids and good players as well, I coached a couple of their forwards in the Group side last year."
That combination of strong defence and attacking flair is something the Saints will be drawing on again this Wednesday night as they look to go three-from-three to start the season.
They will face an Orange CYMS outfit which Grimshaw has a high opinion of and he expects the green and golds will will be hungry to hit back after a 20-12 loss to Lithgow on Saturday.
"It should be a good game, the kids are looking forward to it. I think CYMS are the benchmark at the moment from what I've seen and what people are telling me," the coach said.
"I guess you don't know until you play them, but they should be a good challenge for us."
Wednesday night will feature a double-header at Carrington Park with Bathurst Panthers looking for their first win when taking on Lithgow Workies at 6.20pm. The Pat's versus Orange CYMS match will start at 7.45pm.
