A TEIFI rugby international is glad he didn’t call time on his career as he prepares for his third Rugby World Cup.

Scrum half Gareth Davies has spoken about how he initially thought about ending his international career after being dropped from the Wales squad under Wayne Pivac.

The 33-year-old from Newcastle Emlyn suffered a loss in confidence when he was dropped from the Wales squad by the former head coach, and stated he lost all confidence in his game.

The Scarlets player said: “I hadn’t played for the last year or so because I was out of favour under Wayne Pivac, and that was difficult to take. I almost gave up internationally when all that happened.

“I didn’t really get on with the way Wayne and some of the other coaches wanted me to play. Defensively I wasn’t allowed to do my thing and I lost all confidence in my game.”

Davies was the number one choice at scrum half for Gatland at both the 2015 and 2019 Rugby World Cups and became more hopeful on head coach Warren Gatland’s return.

“When I saw Mr Gatland was coming back it gave me a bit of hope. When I saw which coaches were going to be working with him, I got my hopes up and I thought I’d go for it again,” he said.

“I worked extremely hard to get back into a bit of form and into the best shape I’ve ever been in. I had some good conversations at the Scarlets with my coach Dwayne Peel and he filled me with a lot of confidence.”

Now, Davies is in France where he will battle with Tomos Williams for the starting scrum half position in his third Rugby World Cup, but he is happy with just being in the squad.

“The goal is to be number one, but I’m happy just being part of the squad at the age of 33. Tomos is obviously a world class scrum half, I’ve always rated him, and if I can push him, and he can push me, it will be great for the team.

“Whoever starts, the other player will have an equally important role to play off the bench. Whether we play 50-30, 60-20 minutes, the role of the scrum half coming on is as important as whoever starts.

“I’ve had to work extremely hard to get back into the squad, and it has paid off with my selection – and hopefully it can pay off even more over the next few months.”

Wales begin their Rugby World Cup campaign with a group match against Fiji on Sunday, September 10, 8pm kick off.