Bath’s Paul James was picked in his favour for last week’s pride-restoring performance against the All Blacks but he has returned to his club, ensuring Jenkins, who has 93 Wales caps and played a key role in this year’s RBS 6 Nations Grand Slam, is expected to start against Australia on Saturday.

And he revealed that sitting on the bench in the last two matches has given him a wake-up call.

“It's been a bit of a kick up the backside for me I suppose the last couple of weeks,” he said.

“I want to go out in that team on Saturday and prove that I'm worthy of that loose-head position.

“Paul got the nod last week. I was obviously very disappointed. I backed the decision, backed Paul and came off the bench.

“It's hard to switch yourself on when you are on the bench. When you start it's a pretty different mentality.

“It will be different, but I'm used to starting for Wales normally.”