New Wales captain Dafydd Jenkins might still be an international rugby novice but he knows what is at stake in this weekend’s Six Nations trip to face England.

Now he prepares for his first Twickenham trip in his new role.

“I wouldn’t say it’s like any other game because England and Wales is special,” said Jenkins.

“There’s massive history behind the game. It’s a must-win game for us because of the place we are in the tournament.

“It’ll be the best place to win. For a Welshman there’s no better place especially playing over there if you win over there you gain a lot of respect from them. It’s huge for us.

“It was a dream last week to lead Wales but it will be a lot better if we win.”

Wales left themselves too much to do last weekend with a 20-point deficit at half-time before a 26-point second-half comeback resulted in a one-point defeat.

“There were a lot of emotions at half-time last week, we felt like we were letting a lot of people down,” said Jenkins.

“You don’t want to be in that point again we got ourselves into. We did well to nearly get ourselves out of the hole but we didn’t.

“Hopefully we won’t put ourselves in that position again. We definitely felt like we grew in terms of the performance, a lot of people stepped up in the second half.”

As attention turns towards England, Jenkins will find himself against some familiar foes in Exeter team-mates centre Henry Slade and Cardiff-born wing Immanuel Feyi-Waboso, who has chosen England instead of Wales and will sit on the replacements.

“He was having us all on and we all didn’t know who he was going to pick,” said Jenkins.

“He’s chosen England now and you have to respect that but it’ll be nice to play against him.

“He’s a very intelligent guy. He’s very switched on in terms of life especially rugby.

“I think he’s developed his game a lot as well through his skillset and he’s a freak in terms of his athletic ability. Hopefully we can shut him down on the weekend. Well, we will.

“Henry is also an incredible leader in his own right. He’s great at shutting down attacks through his defence. I’m just looking forward to get one over on him.”

Jenkins hopes his own familiarity of playing with and against English players will help his side.

“You know certain players and what they like to do, and what they like to try to get out of games,” said Jenkins.

“Some of them are also your team-mates so you know what they want to do.

“Also in terms of the line-out you’ve played against them quite a few times so you know triggers and little stuff like that.”

The Wales line-out was a failure in the first-half but shored up after half-time.

“We have a system and we didn’t stick to it, that’s where we let ourselves down a lot,” said Jenkins.

“It’s not on a certain player, it’s a collective. Sometimes you have to say fair play to Scotland for some steals but other times it was our own doing.

“England can assume it’s our weakness but we definitely see it, when it goes right, as our strength.

“We knew we weren’t up to the standard and we’ve tried to put a lot of wrongs right.”