'I would love to be playing more, but it is whatever is best for the team'
Jonathan Davies feels Wales must continue to do the hard graft off the ball to make the most of when they do get it in their hands.
Hopes of a successful Guinness Six Nations title defence are all but over following a 23-19 defeat against England at Twickenham.
The final scoreline did not tell the whole story, however, as Wayne Pivac’s men rallied from trailing 17-0 at early in the second half, during which they ran in three tries.
Wales, now bottom of the table, must lift themselves for the visit of Six Nations leaders France, who are expected to march on towards a first Grand Slam since 2010 when they head to Cardiff on March 11.
Davies, though, believes if Wales can work at “stuff that people don’t really want to do”, then they can make the most of the opportunity to play their own expansive game.
“When you break down the (England) game and look at areas that we can improve on and keep building, you can take some positives with how we played with the ball in the second half,” the 33-year-old centre said.
“We want to play with tempo and speed, with that you have to be accurate. I thought there were periods in the second half when we had control of the ball and it was pretty positive.
“We did some good stuff, but inevitably, it is a results-based game and we didn’t get the result in the end.”
Davies added: “The ability we have when we have players on the ball is important and there is a lot that goes into making sure that you can play like that.
“We had value on those fundamentals in the game on Saturday when we wanted to, but it is making sure that we have that for the full 80 minutes.
“You have got to maintain the ball and keep it for longer periods of time if you are going to play with it more.
“If you don’t have correct numbers or accuracy over the ball cleaning out their threats, you are going to lose the ball.
“Sometimes it is the stuff that people don’t really want to do. If you value that, then it goes a long way to helping you maintain the ball and keep the ball.
“It was something that we spoke about. It is the tasks that don’t really get the plaudits, that is what we have to value for everyone else then to flourish.
“The ball in our hands is the most important thing and that is what we always want to do since we were kids – no one wanted to really defend.
“It is good fun, but like I said, it is all about accuracy and winning games, so we can’t go running up blind alleys. We have to make sure that we execute what we need to do.”
Davies won his 100th Test cap when coming on during the closing stages of the win over Scotland in February.
The experienced Scarlets and British and Irish Lions centre was again among the replacements at Twickenham, where Owen Watkin and Nick Tompkins were named in the starting line-up.
“It is new territory. I would love to be playing more, but it is whatever is best for the team and helping the boys prepare,” Davies said.
“I want to involved as much as I can. At the moment, this is my role and I will do it to the best of my abilities.”
Comments on RugbyPass
Wasnt late. Ref 2 assistants andTMO all saw it so who are you to say it was?
3 Go to commentsAre the Brumbies playing the Blues twice in a row?
3 Go to commentsBig difference from the Saders. Forwards really muscled up and laid a solid platform. Scooter brought some steel and I liked the loosie combination. Newell has been rather disappointing this season but stepped up big time - happy also to see Franks dot down. He should do that more often! Reihana had a good game and there seems to be more flair and invention with him in the saddle. McNicoll plays well from the back and is reliable plus inventive when he joins the line. Keep it up chaps!
3 Go to comments🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
30 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
3 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusaders , you can keep going.
3 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
30 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
30 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
30 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
30 Go to comments