“I hadn’t played for the last year or so because I was out of favour under Wayne Pivac, and that was difficult to take. I almost gave up internationally when all that happened,” admitted Davies.
“I didn’t really get on with the way Wayne and some of the other coaches wanted me to play. Defensively I wasn’t allowed to do my thing and I lost all confidence in my game.
“When I saw Mr Gatland was coming back it gave me a bit of hope. When I saw which coaches were going to be working with him, I got my hopes up and I thought I’d go for it again.
“I worked extremely hard to get back into a bit of form and into the best shape I’ve ever been in. I had some good conversations at the Scarlets with my coach Dwayne Peel and he filled me with a lot of confidence.”
Having been the No 1 choice for Gatland at scrum half at the 2015 and 2019 World Cups, Davies is now travelling to France to battle with Tomos Williams for a starting berth as one of only two scrum halves in the 33-man squad.
“The goal is to be the number one, but I’m happy just being part of the squad at the age of 33. Tomos is obviously a world class scrum half, I’ve always rated him, and if I can push him, and he can push me, it will be great for the team,” he added.
“Whoever starts, the other player will have an equally important role to play off the bench. Whether we play 50-30, 60-20 minutes, the role of the scrum half coming on is as important as whoever starts.”
“I’ve had to work extremely hard to get back into the squad, and it has paid off with my selection – and hopefully it can pay off even more over the next few months.”
