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'I would love to be playing more, but it is whatever is best for the team'


(Photo by Ian Cook - CameraSport via Getty Images)
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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.

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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.

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Jack Nowell, Ryan & Max on England Camp, Six Nations and Post Match Beers & Feeds | RugbyPass Offload | Episode 23

Jack Nowell joins us this week to give us an insight into England camp pre and post the Guinness Six Nations game against Wales. He tells Max and Ryan what’s changed in camp since he was last involved and how the squad is prepping for their next game against Ireland. We also hear about the best post-match feeds around the rugby world, how some of the England squad recently got trapped in a lift and just how much the guys enjoy a post-match beer in the dressing room.

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Jack Nowell, Ryan & Max on England Camp, Six Nations and Post Match Beers & Feeds | RugbyPass Offload | Episode 23

Jack Nowell joins us this week to give us an insight into England camp pre and post the Guinness Six Nations game against Wales. He tells Max and Ryan what’s changed in camp since he was last involved and how the squad is prepping for their next game against Ireland. We also hear about the best post-match feeds around the rugby world, how some of the England squad recently got trapped in a lift and just how much the guys enjoy a post-match beer in the dressing room.

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.

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“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.

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“If you don’t have correct numbers or accuracy over the ball cleaning out their threats, you are going to lose the ball.

Dan Biggar Jonathan Davies
CARDIFF, WALES – FEBRUARY 12: Wales players Dan Biggar (l) and Jonathan Davies celebrates at the end of the game, both players were making their 100th appearance during the Guinness Six Nations match between Wales and Scotland at Principality Stadium on February 12, 2022 in Cardiff, Wales. (Photo by Stu Forster/Getty Images)

“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.”

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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.”

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David Laurenson 1 hour ago
Has the balance between attack and defence become too lopsided?

I and the many others could not disagree more. The score lines are reflective of mainly the ability of the more dominate team, on the day. Forward tries by crash n bash, The illegal mauls, where players are ahead of the ball carrier are an easy score. The one area where the offence team is king though is the Maul !The defensive capabilities to stop a maul are nil, it used to be that all players were not offside as long as they had contact with another player. This was mandatory whether or not you were at the sides or in fact anywhere in the meelay. Now you have to retreat on the refs call to the back, you can’t even tackle the ball carrier, as you then get penalized for collapsing the maul. ALL the advantage is with the offensive side, Mauls are a freeby ! The structure that favors forward participation is predicable and boring. Backs have had to become forwards ! Line speed has totally killed off, running play. To qualify the offside laws have not or seldom been altered since rugby went professional. No compensation has been made for these elite athletes of today, meaning LESS time and SPACE to find a gap. Our game is compressed. We see all games where the pass is made and the receiver getting cleaned out. What does this tell us ? As coaches you have designed a bar the door screen of players, we have pods of forwards, hitting up with intent yet hardly making the gain line, time and time again. with phase play in the thirties. Backs are now used as forwards to hit it up and hopefully retain possession from the tackled ball or ruck. If you diagnosed our game with mathematicians and engineers, they would come up with two causes. Either you have less players, or you enlarge the field of play. Of course this would not be entertained, so the obvious solution is to add a metre to all the current off side laws. WHY to give a little time and space for the offensive team to attack, that’s right the opposite to what we have just read, but for both sides this would allow some freedom for backs to be backs, less kicking, less forward interference, we may even get our game back as it would be more enjoyable to play, to follow, to ref, fans could actually view tactics in motion as against the current predictability. Compression is negative, a little separation freedom.

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