Lock Joe Davies has revealed how a ‘tasty’ training session with Cardiff Blues in horrendous weather conditions helped Dragons prepare for a return to Guinness PRO14 action.
Dragons head north to battle Edinburgh Rugby at BT Murrayfield Stadium on Friday night (kick-off 7.35pm) as league action resumes after a two-week break during the Six Nations.
And ahead of the game Davies has spoken about how Dragons geared up the tough encounter with Edinburgh with the aid of a physical session with regional rivals Cardiff Blues.
“We have to nullify Edinburgh’s scrum. We’ve focussed on that this week and had a good training session with Cardiff Blues,” he said.
“It was a good physical session with them and it was good prep for this Friday night. It was a bit tasty at times, with scrums and lineouts and then there were five-minute blocks which were pretty full on.
“It takes you out of the normal environment as we all trained at the Arms Park. It was raining like made with gale force winds so it was a good taster for what possibly might be ahead of us up in Scotland.”
Dragons edged the reverse encounter with Edinburgh 18-12 back in November, with a huge defensive show underpinning the positive home result.
And Davies is eager to repeat that feat this week as he looks to continue his own impressive spell in the second row.
He said: “We’ve got a block now of three games that we are really focussing on. We will try and bring physicality and replicate what we did at home.
“At the start of this season I was not where I wanted to be. But now I feel I've been doing better and I've got to just keep progressing,” he added.
“Bringing in an international lock (Brandon Nansen) is good competition and great for the environment. There were a couple of games where I possibly didn’t put in my best performance and Brandon did. That is the industry we are in, if you don’t perform well you don’t play the next week.”
CLICK HERE to secure your tickets for the Dragons final home game in Newport this season as Ulster come to Rodney Parade for the Guinness PRO14 clash on 3 March (ko 3pm).
It was a good physical session with them and it was good prep for this Friday night. It was a bit tasty at times, with scrums and lineouts and then there were five-minute blocks which was pretty full on...
