Challenge is to improve for England says Davies

JONATHAN Davies vowed to continue Wales’ winning run but told his team to wise up for England as they edged to a scrappy 26-15 Six Nations win over Italy.

Centre Davies captained his country for the first time in Rome, but Wales were disjointed for long periods despite sealing their 11th straight victory. It equals the best run in Welsh rugby history.

“There is a lot of frustration in that performance. You can’t fault the boys’ effort, but we were lacking a bit of accuracy in the final quarter to turn that pressure into points,” said Davies, right.

“We came to a difficult place to play and got the result. Credit to Italy they made things tough for us.

“We probably expected to be a bit more accurate and be smarter with the ball. We can still take some things out of the game and our focus now turns to a big game coming up against England.

“We will have to be a lot better than we were today against them.”

Wales never pulled away and had to rely on secondhalf tries from Josh Adams and Owen Watkin to come out on top. Italy scored twice through Abraham Steyn and Edoardo Padovani. Dan Biggar’s 14 points from the tee proved crucial. Next up for Wales are England in round three. Davies, who became Wales’ 137th skipper, said: “It was great that we made 10 changes and it showed our strength in depth. It was unfortunate Thomas Young didn’t get over in the corner at the end.

“To improve for England is the challenge in front of us and the group are all excited about that.

“It is going to be a tasty one I’m sure. We are in a good place at the moment and we just have to keep this momentum going.”