LONG READ Trevor Davison's second coming: The salt of the earth is where the best props grow

Not for nothing was Graham Price known as “the silent assassin” during his salad days in the 1970s and 1980s. The legendary Wales and three-tour British and Irish Lions tight-head prop did not waste any energy on words, he focused on drilling his opponents into the ground at stadia near and far – from the lush grass and mud of Pontypool Park to the unyielding, rock-hard granite of Potchefstroom and Bloemfontein.

While the props opposite ‘Pricey’ suffered in a silence punctuated only by the groans and sobs of their own efforts, the man beside him did enough talking for the entire trio. When Springbok skipper Hannes Marais found his feet reluctantly leaving terra firma at the very first scrum of the Lions series in 1974, Bobby Windsor observed wryly, “you’ve got another 80 minutes of that coming”. When loose-head Sakkie Sauermann let out a terminal squeal of pain in the second half of the first Test, ‘The Duke’ cackled with glee. “That finished them,” he said.

What built Price’s scrummaging backbone was the competition for places at Pontypool.  The likes of Charlie Faulkner, Mike Crowley, Paul Jenkins, Staff Jones and Brandon Cripps ensured the scrums in training were as fierce and demanding as any on a matchday. Two or three thousand supporters would regularly turn up on a Wednesday evening just to watch the scrum wars which ensued.

The salt of the earth is where the best props grow. The players flirting with international quality, but central to the gritty life and sediment of the club game are essential to that process of development. They provide the yardstick and litmus test for the stars in the rugby firmament.

England’s answer to that clarion call in the modern professional era is Northampton’s Trevor Davison. The 6ft 2ins, 122kg Tynesider is now 33 years old and has won three England caps over a nine-year professional career first triggered by a move from Blaydon RFC to Newcastle Falcons back in 2017.

Like Price, the Geordie redhead goes about his business without a lot of words and with even less fuss. Like Price’s team-mates at Pontypool, big Trev is the yardstick by which others of stellar quality are measured, and the glue which holds the Saints tight five together.

When nobody else could stick at number three in Northampton, Davison not only stayed, but took root at Franklin’s Gardens in one of the most difficult positions on the pitch. Paul Hill and Ehren Painter had been tried at the spot, but it was the quiet stability which Davison brought to the set-piece which projected Saints towards a Prem triumph in 2023-2024, a European Champions cup semi-final in 2024 and a final in the same tournament one year later.

The words of Micky Ward, Davison’s old forwards coach at Falcons, on his call-up to England Counties duty in 2016, ring as true now as they did back then. They serve admirably as a description of Davison’s career trajectory as a whole.

“Someone like Trev could really be in that [sic] set-up for the next 10 seasons,” Ward said.

“They could build their pack around him, and he is a guy who just gets on with what he needs to be done in a game.

“He does a canny job, he quietly goes about his work and it is great England Counties have recognised it.”

A quiet, unassuming grafter at the coalface he may be, but Steve Borthwick has rightly chosen to recognise Davison’s quality in the twilight of his professional career. With Will Stuart and Asher Opoku-Fordjour out injured for the entire Six Nations, the big Geordie is just the job for England’s bench front row. Blue-collar, no-nonsense, get down-and-dirty and get on with it.

It is probably Davison’s scrum stability and work ethic which has allowed Northampton to start a 6ft 1in, 107kg footballer at hooker in the shape of dynamic, ball-playing Curtis Langdon.

Davison’s reliability may have enabled Borthwick to select young Manny Iyogun to his first England Six Nations squad. Up until 2020, the then-19-year-old was a loose-limbed back rower, before a crisis at loose-head prop forced the youngster to leapfrog straight into the front row furnace. Alex Waller, Danny Hobbs-Awoyemi, Francois van Wyk and Nick Auterac were all unavailable for a Champions Cup tie against Exeter Chiefs, leaving the way open for a teenage Iyogun to make a positional switch which has taken him to edge of international honours.

As his scrum coach at the time, Matt Ferguson remembered colourfully in a touchline interview for TNT Sports: “If we can say [it on air], [Manny has] a rather large rear. Which is what excited me about him. And he’s worked incredibly hard. I do a strange job, and I love it.” But it is Davison who has been the constant which has enabled Iyogun to grow into a prop who can compete functionally in the latter stages of the Champions Cup, and in future for the red rose of England on the international stage.

Put Jamie George or Luke Cowan-Dickie next to the Blaydon man at hooker and either Fin Baxter or Ellis Genge on the other side of the front row, and we will see what havoc the redhead from the Northeast can really wreak. There were more than few hints in the last round of the Prem, in the game between Sale Sharks and the visiting Saints.

Davison’s immediate opponent was another England Six Nations squad man, highly-rated Bevan Rodd, in match where Northampton were looking to rediscover some of their lost scrummaging mojo after a difficult first quarter at the Stade Chaban-Delmas versus Carlu Sadie and Union Bordeaux-Bègles.

With 145kg of JJ van der Mescht sitting behind him, Davison outpointed Rodd convincingly, winning the scrum penalty count three to one with the starters still on the field. He started with an excellent ‘finesse’ scrum on the Saints feed.

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— William Bishop (@RPvids1994) January 26, 2026

Northampton want to attack the left-hand side of the field, so Davison’s role is to remain passive and allow the scrum to rotate around him. It is a subtle task: giving ground just enough to encourage the opposing loose-head to push and take his own back-row away from the ball, but not concede so much as to destroy the integrity of the set-piece. At the critical moment, Saints have created enough separation between the Sharks backs and forwards to make a bust straight up the middle.

One of the most impressive aspects of Davison’s scrummaging is his ability to absorb pressure initially, then come back strongly enough to turn the tables on his opponent.

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— William Bishop (@RPvids1994) January 26, 2026

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— William Bishop (@RPvids1994) January 26, 2026

In both clips, the Northampton tight-head has to resist some initial pressure from Rodd, and he even takes one short backward step in the second of the two instances, but in both he recovers well enough to dominate the ‘second half of the scrum’.

He also enjoyed the upper hand on Sale’s own feed.

pic.twitter.com/Q77HhpGQKo

— William Bishop (@RPvids1994) January 26, 2026

Rodd gets the better hit at ‘set’, but once again Davison is good enough and strong enough to absorb the force and turn it back on his opponent, garnering yet another penalty in a scrum battle Northampton had to win.

Davison will never say it, but he is one of the main reasons why the Saints have become a true force in Prem and Champions Cup. Brilliant behind, but now drawing ample respect from the opposition up front. His understated stability at scrum-time has allowed first Langdon and now Iyogun to become legitimate England prospects.

The salt of the earth is where the best props grow. With Cowan-Dickie or George and Genge or Baxter alongside him, big Trev may yet find another level off the England bench in his thirties, a gilt-edged dusk to his professional career at the Six Nations. For sure, he will never let anyone down: cry havoc, and let loose those dogs of war.