He had been on the field when Wales went 17 points clear early in the second half and must have thought the job was done until two tries from Mac Grealy edged Queensland Reds into a 35-31 lead with nine minutes to play.
Having not tasted victory since they beat the Barbarians in a non-caped match in November last year, the Welsh side were desperate to taste success again having lost eight internationals matches in a row in 2024.
“At least we’ve got that monkey off our backs now. It has been a tough couple of months after the Six Nations and through these summer games,” admitted Davies.
“We’ve played some good stuff in parts and let ourselves down in some other critical parts in those games. That nearly happened again tonight, although we came out on the right side of the result.
“Hopefully we can keep on building as a group into the autumn internationals. It has almost been a 14-month season given we had the World Cup training camps.
“It really has been a long old season. It was a tough run with the Scarlets as well, and now I’m looking forward to a couple of weeks off to recharge the batteries before getting going ahead of next season.”
Wales head coach Warren Gatland installed Davies as captain after his initial pick when he announced his team, lock Cory Hill, decided to drop out of the game for ‘personal reasons’.
That left Gatland having to explain what had happened in his post-match press conference.
Regan Grace of Wales runs in to score a try
“Cory came to me and said he was pulling out of the match for personal reasons. I had to respect that,” said Gatland.
“I’ll put my hand up and say I probably shouldn’t have put him in that position. I made a rugby decision.
“It doesn’t help when you get some negativity thrown at it – that makes things difficult. I could have negated that by not selecting him in that position.
“I need to hold my hand up in terms of that. What I can say is that he has been absolutely brilliant while he’s been out here with his leadership and experience, and in how he’s helped the young players.
“I probably looked at it from a rugby decision and I didn’t appreciate there was going to be some negativity about making that call.”
Gatland was happy to see his side win and believes the experience gained throughout the summer will reap rewards in the Autumn Series when Wales host Fiji, Australia and South Africa.
“We showed some real resilience and the game looked comfortable on a couple of occasions, but they kept coming back at us. The most disappointing thing for me was our maul defence,” he added.
“That’s probably due to the new boys coming in and some combinations. That put us under pressure to meant we had to go back and score, but we showed some real character.
“Gareth (Davies) summed it up at the end when he told the players they have to go back and work hard because he believes this is going to be a good team. We just need a little bit of time together.
“We’ve got some real quality to come back in terms of the players who aren’t here on tour and this has been about developing depth in the squad. If we do pick up injuries in the future, players will have had experience of wearing the jersey.
“We’ve been clear that we are working towards developing this team towards the 2027 Wold Cup. The message to the players ahead of the autumn is to make sure over the next three months they go back to their clubs and continue to work hard.
“We know we’ve got some experience to come back, which will be good, and I think that with the development of this young group we can look forward to having a strong autumn.”
