Whatever the happy words from Reds HQ, a reliance upon Davies would have to rate as a serious concern regarding a Reds victory playing away against a team of the Chiefs' intensity, skill and tactical guile.
Davies is mostly a straight-line player whose only asset is, in rugby terms, the most simplistic form of pace. He often has momentum-damaging handling and 'where do I go now' issues when he has to collect the loose ball fast, turn fast and then manoeuvre forward with cleverness. He rarely bends a competent defensive line or escapes a good defender on his case. He's got a near-Aplon stature with a fraction of the class.
As we watched him in 2010 and 2011, it was very apparent that he had to be unlocked by QC (Quade Cooper) finding sizeable holes and spaces for him and guiding him there, Davies was far from a roving winger seeking surprising places to make his own luck. Good oppositions have become better at not granting the Reds the quantity of fast ruck ball that we gained in the aforementioned years and thus the Cooper-provides-for-the-speedster-Davies opportunities are lessened now. That's one big reason why Shipperley has become so much the better choice.
And btw, to state the importantly obvious, Davies' S15 game time with the 2012 and 2013 Reds has been severely limited, he'll be anxious with this start with this game's immense pressures. Davies will receive a dose of Dave Rennie's specially designed attacking medicine on Saturday afternoon, that can be stated with certainty. Let's hope and prey Rocket Rod will stun us with a new 2013 version that upwardly revises an assessment of his value to the team.
