Davies unlikely to be fixture at No.6

SO what now - or, more pertinently, where now - for Seb Davies?

Only a couple of months ago, few could have foreseen what lay in store for the 25-year-old Cardiff second row.

He hadn’t played for Wales for close on a year, missing out on the original squad for the summer Tests, and he seemed some way down the pecking order.

But he ended up figuring in all four autumn internationals, three of them on the blindside flank.

Even when he was named in Wayne Pivac’s squad, one imagined he was going to be something of a fringe figure, with an outing against Fiji his likely involvement.

But you just never know what’s around the corner.

With fellow squad members Ellis Jenkins, Taulupe Faletau, Thomas Young and Christ Tshiunza all unavailable for the campaign opener against New Zealand for various reasons, Wales were suddenly down to the bare bones in the back row.

So it was that Davies was pressed into service as blindside cover on the bench.

And before the half-time whistle had sounded, he was on the pitch with starting six Ross Moriarty having been forced off with shoulder damage.

With Moriarty ruled out for the rest of the series, Davies continued as back-row back-up against South Africa and was called into action after just 50 minutes when No 8 Aaron Wainwright was crocked.

It was same again versus Fiji, as he was once more summoned from the bench before the hour mark as a replacement for openside Thomas Young.

Then, come the finale against Australia, he was in from the start, but this time in his club position of lock, with Will Rowlands having been ruled out with concussion.

So a pretty hectic autumn for the Pentyrch product, who now has 13 caps to his name and he could well continue to be a busy boy over the next couple of years.

Pivac has made it clear he is looking to develop a hybrid second row/6 for the 2023 World Cup out in France where squad numbers will be limited and Davies is a frontrunner for that role along with young Christ Tshiunza.

So the experiment of utilising him in the back row, first tried out by Warren Gatland but then seemingly ditched, is now on the agenda once more.

Where then does that leave him on a week-to-week basis?

Well, Cardiff director of rugby Dai Young is pretty clear on what the Arms Park plan is.

“First and foremost, I don’t pick Wayne’s team and Wayne doesn’t pick my team,” said the former Wales and Lions prop.

“Wayne did express to me that he is desperate to find this second row/6 hybrid. At the time of the discussion, he had one or two players in mind, Seb being one of them.

“So that’s the process really. “We were glad to see Seb in the Wales squad because he has missed out the last couple of times. He was given opportunities and he took them.

“But I don’t see him playing much 6 for us, to be honest, with what we have got in the back row.

“He has played there in the past, so you can never say never, but he’s figured nearly every game for us in the second row.”