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Major career landmark achieved recently by ‘phenomenal’ Gareth Davies
By Simon Thomas
Gareth Davies has been likened to a top striker in football having just reached a major career landmark. The Wales scrum-half took his tally of league tries up to 50 with a double in Scarlets’ victory over Zebre Parma in the last round of BKT United Rugby Championship matches.
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He is only the second Welshman to reach a half-century, following in the footsteps of his regional colleague Steff Evans, and just the seventh player overall.
Only Evans (54), Tim Visser and DTH Van der Merwe (both 58), Craig Gilroy (59), and record holder Tommy Bowe (67) now stand above him on the all-time list, where he lies joint sixth with Andrew Trimble.
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The prolific Davies is the highest scoring scrum-half in the competition’s history and the only player from outside of the back three in the top 10. He will now look to add to his growing tally when he takes on Dragons RFC in a Judgement Day clash at the Cardiff City Stadium on Saturday.
Scarlets coach Dwayne Peel, himself a former international No9, was glowing in his praise for the man from Carmarthenshire. “If you look at him as a try scorer, he has been phenomenal,” he reckoned. “He has scored some fantastic tries.
“He scores the wonder tries and he is still doing that, but he has also got an eye for support lines. The great players have that. It’s very similar to strikers in football. The guys who score the goals from four or five yards out, those are the ones that get in the right place at the right time.”
Outlining what makes Davies still such an effective performer just a few months away from his 34th birthday, Peel added: “He is the ultimate competitor really. He wants to fight every day in training. He doesn’t like anyone getting one over on him.
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“That’s the player he is, that’s the mentality he has. That’s why he’s had such longevity and is still going strong. He is a great character and he really drives the standard. Because he is such a competitor, he brings that out in everyone else.”
Scarlets skipper Ryan Elias added: “He has got a great eye and he knows the game inside out. He is a calming voice and a massive help to me. I will speak to him to make sure he gets stuck into the forwards and not to let us get lazy. He will bark at you to get round the corner and not take the easy options.”
All-time URC top try-scorers
67: Tommy Bowe (Ulster/Ospreys)
59: Craig Gilroy (Ulster)
58: Tim Visser (Edinburgh), DTH Van der Merwe (Glasgow/Scarlets)
54: Steff Evans (Scarlets)
50: Gareth Davies (Scarlets), Andrew Trimble (Ulster)
49: Dan Evans (Scarlets, Dragons, Ospreys)
48: Dave Kearney (Leinster)
46: Johnny McNicholl (Scarlets)
45: Tom James (Cardiff, Scarlets), Simon Zebo (Munster)
44: Andrew Conway (Munster)
42: Rhys Webb (Ospreys)
