WALES coach Neil Jenkins believes the Grand Slam winners desperately need to take Australia’s scalp this summer if they are to fulfill their ambition of being a world power and end their “dreadful” record against the Tri Nations sides.

Jenkins was speaking yesterday after Wales selected a 38-man training squad ahead of June’s game against the Barbarians and the three-Test tour of Australia.

Only twice have Wales ever beaten one of the big three in the southern hemisphere, having amassed a woeful record against Australia, New Zealand and South Africa in the last 25 years.

They have never beaten the All Blacks or South Africa outside Cardiff and their two victories against Tri Nations sides in the southern hemisphere both came against the Wallabies.

They beat Australia 19-16 at the Sydney Cricket Ground back in 1969 when the Beatles were still together and then again – just before Rick Astley’s Never Gonna Give You Up was topping the charts – during the inaugural World Cup in 1987 to finish third in the competition.

That dramatic last gasp 22-21 victory, thanks to Adrian Hadley’s try and Paul Thorburn’s magnificent touchline conversion, took place in Rotorua, New Zealand, against a Wallabies side who spent most of the game with 14 men after flanker David Codey was sent off.

Since then Wales have lost 50 of their last 54 games against the southern hemisphere superpowers. The four times Wales staved off defeat all came at the Millennium Stadium when they beat the Springboks at the ground’s opening match in 1999 before beating Australia in 2005 and 2008 and holding them six years ago in a 29-29 thriller.

Wales skills coach Jenkins, who was on the wrong end of a 56-25 and 42-3 hammering against the Aussies on his country’s 1996 tour Down Under, admitted their form against the three is woeful.

“It’s a dreadful record – not the best record at all is it? Not for a country of our stature in terms of where we are in the world,” the former Wales outside half said.

“But it does show how hard it is to win away from home for us.

“This is the next marker for us, this is the next step forward. We’ve got a huge amount of talent, a lot of youngsters in this squad. And it’s a great opportunity for them and they can go down in the history books if they are a success on this trip.”

This tour appears to present Wales with an excellent chance of achieving at least one Test victory and catching the Wallabies cold. Although Wales play the Barbarians in Cardiff on Saturday, June 2, caretaker head coach Rob Howley has made it clear that most players who will face the Wallabies in the first Test seven days later will not figure against the Baa-baas and will already have made the long flight to Australia.

In contrast on June 1, many of the Wallabies squad should be involved in the Australian ‘derby’ between Melbourne Rebels and the Brumbies in the Super 15 and the Waratahs face the Hurricanes in the same competition on June 2.

To compound matters for Australia, they take on Scotland on June 5 in a crazy schedule that exposes players to the risk of injury, physical and mental fatigue as well as having precious little time together before the Tri Nations champions take on the northern hemisphere’s best team.

Although Jenkins said Howley is trying to keep his players focused after a long season, he added they will not use that as an excuse if they fail Down Under.

“The aim is to win – we’re not going there to make up the numbers,” he said.

“Rob is really keen at the moment to try and freshen the boys up and keep them enjoying their football. It has been a long season but we’ve got no excuses. We’ve got a Test match we want to win against the Barbarians before we leave and we need to hit the ground running then come the first Test match against Australia.

“They’ve got a game on the Tuesday against Scotland and they won’t have spent an awful lot of time together.”

Jenkins stressed how important victory is for Wales this summer: “We’ve won the Six Nations and the Grand Slam – we need the southern hemisphere scalps for us to be a great side and for us to move on and be a real, real top team come the World Cup in 2015.

“We need to win games away from home as well as take southern hemisphere scalps at home.”

But he added that it won’t be easy: “Australia, for me, are definitely the second best side in the world. I think they are close to the All Blacks. They’ve got an awful lot of talent and they are a very good side.”