Hard graft can make us flourish, says Davies

JONATHAN Davies feels Wales must continue to do the hard graft off the ball to make the most of when they do get it in their hands.

Hopes of a successful Guinness Six Nations title defence are all but over following a 23-19 defeat against England at Twickenham.

The final scoreline did not tell the whole story, however, as Wayne Pivac’s men rallied from trailing 17-0 at early in the second half, during which they ran in three tries.

Wales, now second bottom of the table, must lift themselves for the visit of Six Nations leaders France, who are expected to march on towards a first Grand Slam since 2010 when they head to Cardiff on Friday.

Davies, though, believes if Wales can work at “stuff that people don’t really want to do”, then they can make the most of the opportunity to play their own expansive game.

“When you break down the (England) game and look at areas that we can improve on and keep building, you can take some positives with how we played with the ball in the second half,” the 33-year-old Scarlets centre said.

“We want to play with tempo and speed, with that you have to be accurate.

“I thought there were periods in the second half when we had control of the ball and it was pretty positive.

“We did some good stuff, but inevitably, it is a results-based game and we didn’t get the result in the end.”

Davies added: “The ability we have when we have players on the ball is important and there is a lot that goes into making sure that you can play like that.

“We had value on those fundamentals in the game when we wanted to, but it is making sure that we have that for the full 80 minutes.

“You have got to maintain the ball and keep it for longer periods of time if you are going to play with it more.

“Sometimes it is the stuff that people don’t really want to do. If you value that, then it goes a long way to helping you maintain the ball and keep the ball.

“It is the tasks that don’t really get the plaudits, that is what we have to value for everyone else to flourish.

“The ball in our hands is the most important thing and that is what we always want to do since we were kids – no one wanted to really defend.

“It is good fun, but it is about accuracy and winning games. We have to make sure that we execute what we need to do.”