Davies gets his moment in sun
After a largely unrewarding apprenticeship, often in front of the proverbial two men and a dog, Davies gravitated to the part-time Welsh Premiership, where he played for the Cardiff club team, sometimes in front of a few hundred fans.
A contracted place in the supporting cast for the Blues regional squad offered hope of a belated breakthrough. In four seasons of the Pro12, they gave him nothing more than two starts, hardly enough to suggest he was on a collision course with Wilkinson.
When European champions Toulon pitched up at the Arms Park, Davies found himself on the bench and he would have stayed there had the newly-capped Rhys Patchell lived up to his early promise. No spring chicken at 29, Davies had sat through a thunderstorm before stealing Wilkinson’s thunder.
True to form, the man nobody had really heard of sprang from nowhere to dot down the only try of the game three minutes from time, but not before he had shot clear of a flailing Wilkinson.
As giant-killings go, it was probably the biggest since Northampton, then bottom of the English League, went to San Sebastian in 2007 and put Biarritz, then defending French champions, out for the count. And serve them right, too.
What does that say about Toulon? They had a power pack and Wilkinson’s unforgiving left foot at Cardiff but precious little else and that against a team that sacked its defence coach, Rob Powell, after conceding six tries at Exeter the previous week.
Funny old game…
Rarely in recent times can a captain have publicly lambasted his team as Alun-Wyn Jones lambasted the Ospreys after their home surrender to Leinster.
“Every year I go to the launch and say, ‘This year we are going to make a fist of it’. I’ve done that for the last four years and made myself look a right t***. The sadistic side of me says it’s better to lose than be the shower of s**** we were last week and capitalise.”
Did the shellacking have the desired effect? Hardly, given that the Ospreys drew another blank at Northampton yesterday. Jones, remember, was talking about a team whose pack included five Test Lions — himself, Adam Jones, Richard Hibbard, Justin Tipuric and Ryan Jones.
Pointless after two games, the Ospreys are down among the dead Italian men, Treviso and Zebre. Suffice to say, then, that Jones is probably still mightily cheesed off.
Jonny Sexton and his confreres in the blue and white of Racing looked as though they had been robbed when the video referee disallowed what would have been a winning try at the Parc y Scarlets’ ‘Heart and Soul Rugby Country’.
In ripping possession from an opponent Sexton was found to have knocked the ball forward. Racing argued that it wasn’t a knock-on because it came out of the tackle but a closer study of the law book will make them realise that the TMO, Iain Ramage, got it right.
The Scarlets, 10 points down at one stage, then 13 clear shortly after half-time, finished up fortunate to get away with a draw. And they did so not because of the disallowed try, but because Sexton missed a late penalty.
At the risk of irritating those among the unions who blame the English clubs for anything and everything, it ought to be but a matter of time before one of their number is given a medal for spreading the rugby gospel.
Saracens may have fallen short against Toulouse at Wembley on Friday night but not before more than 61,000 filed into the home of English football — more than anyone in the Premier League bar Manchester United. A lesser club would have kicked evangelism into touch rather than concede home advantage but Sarries have never had any difficulty seeing the bigger picture.
Wade Dooley knows a fair bit about discipline. The RFU once banned him from the England team along with the Bath trio Richard Hill, Graham Dawe and Gareth Chilcott because the blazers decided they had been nasty to Wales at Cardiff in 1987.
In a classic case of poacher turned gamekeeper, the same Wade Dooley is back on-side with the RFU as one of their disciplinary officers. And where was he at the weekend? Back in Wales as the official citing commissioner at the Scarlets’ home draw against Racing
Toulouse, Leinster, Ulster.
Racing Metro, Scarlets.
Leicester, Munster, Clermont, Perpignan.
Ospreys, Treviso, Zebre.
1, Ulster; 2, Cardiff Blues;
3, Glasgow Warriors.
1, Toulon; 2, Montpellier; 3, Ospreys.
1, Andrew Trimble for Ulster at Montpellier
Paddy Jackson’s try-saver on Anthony Tuitavake in the same match.
Nick Evans last-kick drop goal for Quins at Clermont.
“We believe we can win every game we play,” Jonny Wilkinson. What he meant was win every game except when we play a team that’s just sacked its defence coach and operated without one because the new man, the Kiwi Dale McIntosh, doesn’t start until today.
15 Liam Williams (Scarlets); 14 Andrew Trimble (Ulster), 13 Casey Laulala (Munster), 12 Wesley Fofana (Clermont), 11 Adrian Thompstone (Leicester); 10 Paddy Jackson (Ulster), 9 Ruan Pienaar (Ulster); 1 Tom Court (Ulster), 2 Chris Tolofua (Toulouse), 3 Census Johnston (Toulouse); 4 Joe Tekori (Toulouse), 5 Courtney Lawes (Northampton); 6 Peter O’Mahony (Munster), 8 Robin Copeland (Cardiff Blues), 7 Sean O’Brien (Leinster).
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