Milestone man Davies targets derby joy

Fly half Sam Davies hit another major milestone in his career last weekend – but all his focus is on helping Dragons RFC rewrite an unwanted record in the capital.

Davies scored his 500th point for the Men of Gwent with a successful conversion in the defeat to Benetton Rugby.

The 29-year-old is now only behind Jason Tovey (1,009) and Ceri Sweeney (570) in the all-time point scoring charts at Dragons.

But as attention turns to the derby with Cardiff on Saturday in the capital, Davies insists all he is interested in is securing a first win at Cardiff Arms Park since 2014 and breaking a 14-game losing streak.

“It’s another milestone in my career that I will look back on when I retire and be proud of - hopefully there is plenty more to come starting with Cardiff this weekend,” he said.

“We must turn up emotionally this weekend and for Welsh derbies we normally do that.

“Our set piece is good enough to give us a good chance of winning the game, off the back of that our kicking game has to be good and we need to be a bit more clinical when we enter the opposition 22.”

Davies acknowledges the set piece will be a major battleground this weekend and how friendships will once again be put to one side for 80 minutes.

“You play against friends and boys we know, but we put those friendships aside for the derby days and they become fiery affairs,” he said.

“This week we will have to look back and see what we did poorly and reflect on some of the positives we can take from Benetton.

“The set piece and opposition 22m attack will be key areas for us this week.

“Cardiff have threats all over the field in attack and they have some dangerous and direct centres in the middle of the park,” he added.

“We will need to take care of those threats and the breakdown is always massive in these games against Cardiff, both sides of the ball.

“We just need to make sure we receive quick ball, slow theirs down and we will be in the game.”