NEW Wales rugby head coach Gareth Jenkins, the people's choice, has admitted he had to put a lot of pent up emotion behind him to forget the huge snub of two years earlier and accept the role he had always coveted.

Llanelli director of rugby Jenkins was the hot favourite to be Wales coach in 2004 before Mike Ruddock was parachuted in and unveiled while he was at a funeral and had not been told.

But he was all smiles yesterday as, flanked by Welsh Rugby Union chief executive Steve Lewis and chairman David Pickering, two of the men instrumental in Ruddock's appointment over his head, he told of his pride in at last being unveiled as coach of his country.

"It's always been a lifetime goal for me to have the opportuniuty to coach my country and now it has become real I'm very proud," said the man who will be in charge for two years beyond the next World Cup with an option of a contract extension.

"A lot of emotions were imbedded in me from the previous time I was put in this position.

"We are all aware of what happened and when this job became available again I had to consider my ambition hard.

"I reflected and I realised you have to put things behind you and move on if you want to achieve things and I made that decision and I'm comfortable with it.

"It was obvious when I dealt with my emotions that to move my career forward I had to make myself available for the job I'd always wanted.

"To get the job means I have to work with the people around me and I'm more than comfortable to do that and committed to do so for the benefit of Welsh rugby.

"So all hatchets have been buried - it's the only way. Sport is all about moving on. You have your ups and downs but it's always about what's next.

"We have issues, we deal with them, we put them behind us and we take on the next challenge. That challenge now is to make Wales as successful as I can."

Jenkins will bring in his own coaching team, having been given a free hand to do so, and will sit down in the next week to consider further appointments and who to make captain for the two-match tour to Argentina in June.

"Hopefully, by the end of next week I'll be able to be more forthcoming with a positive view of the structure," he said.

"Argentina will be a fantastic opportunity for me to be involved in Test rugby and I'm excited by that."