A regular in the Dragons first team last season, Davies made 25 appearances for the Men of Gwent, but the Dragons academy product has found a starting spot harder to come by this season as he has had to contend with increased competition in the second row and overcoming an early season injury.
The 40-minutes at a freezing Ebbw Vale gave the giant second row the opportunity to further push his claim for selection against Connacht this weekend after making his playing return from a shoulder injury as a second half sub against Ulster in Belfast in last Saturday’s Guinness PRO14 fixture.
Q. How was it to get back out there in Belfast?
JD: I had a few weeks off with my shoulder injury, but it was good to get back out there off the bench. I felt like I proved myself and it was good to get more game time tonight against Hong Kong
Q. Are you trying to give Bernard a selection headache?
Pretty much, I want to just keep pushing myself and put my name forward every single week to do the best I can, I tonight I think we did that.
Q. Last season was good year for you in terms of games?
Last year I played a lot of games and this year it has taken me a bit longer than I would have liked, but I’m back to the performance level of where I was at the start of last season, hopefully I can keep pushing forwards.
Q. The squad is deeper now, how are you finding the increased competition?
There is definitely a lot of competition and that helps in training as boys have to prove themselves throughout the week to get a chance at the weekend. With Brandon arriving and Shanks (Lewis Evans) stepping into the second row now there’s more competition than there was last year, but it’s good, without competition you can get comfortable.
Q. How have you improved?
There’s a lot more coaches in the squad now, so there’s more time spent on individual skills and everything has increased ten-fold since last year, which has made an impact.
Q. Where do you think you are different from the others?
I bring physicality in my game and I carry hard, hit hard, push as hard as I can in the scrum, maul as hard as I can and do everything as hard as I can
Q. Will you guys take confidence from Belfast going to Galway this Saturday?
We’ve got to build on what we did last weekend in Belfast which was a good attacking performance, we just need to tighten up on a few things, like individual errors, then we’re a team that has bonded and we can play well together.
