The Gareth Davies interview: I'm not ready to hang up boots yet and my plans for life after rugby
The Gareth Davies interview: I'm not ready to hang up boots yet and my plans for life after rugby
Gareth Davies' business Blackbear Property is thriving but he has no intention of hanging up his boots just yet
Sarah Howe and Gareth Davies, of Blackbear
(Image: Submitted )
There have been few better servants to Welsh rugby over the past decade than Gareth Davies.
The 77-cap former Wales star played a pivotal role in Welsh rugby's successes in the latter part of the first Warren Gatland era.
Who can forget his sensational try against England at Twickenham which knocked Stuart Lancaster's side out of their own World Cup? Or his crucial interception try which went a long way to knocking over the Wallabies in Tokyo four years later?
"When I look back at my career there are a few moments which stand out," he said. Get the latest breaking Welsh rugby news stories sent straight to your inbox with our FREE daily newsletter. Sign up here.
"The first is winning my first cap out in South Africa in 2014 which was a special day for myself and my family. The second one would be scoring that important try against England in 2015 to knock them out of their own World Cup.
"There was also winning the Six Nations Grand Slam in 2019 and reaching a semi-final in the World Cup.
Article continues below
"Scoring that interception try against Australia was great as well. I played against some great players as well and I'd have to say Faf de Klerk was the toughest opponent I faced.
"I played against him a few times and he was a tough guy to play against because he was everywhere defensively.
"He literally had a free role to do what he wanted and I think his role was to close me down at every ruck.
"A lot of scrum-halves would defend out on the wide edges or short side but I found Faf was shadowing me at every ruck I went to. He'd be trying to scrag me and I always found him difficult to play against.
"I'm also privileged to have played with some great players and if I had to pick one I'd say Liam Williams in his prime was the best I've played with.
"When he was in his prime he was a hell of a player and would never have a bad game.
"He would always give 100% and have something magical up his sleeve."
It's safe to say Davies' rugby career has been a resounding success, but the 34-year-old has been just as successful off the field.
A year ago Davies, alongside his business partner Simon John, set up his own estate agent, Blackbear Property in Haverfordwest, with it going so well they recently opened up a second branch in Llansamlet, Swansea.
"We launched Blackbear just over 12 months ago," Davies tells WalesOnline. Sign up to Inside Welsh rugby on Substack to get exclusive news stories and insight from behind the scenes in Welsh rugby.
"We opened our first office in Haverfordwest with my business partner Simon John. We've got a couple of guys working with us, Jamie and Jack, who cover Pembrokeshire and Sarah who takes care of Swansea.
"They are the agents doing all the hard work in the office day to day.
"I've known Simon for quite a long time because he's worked alongside my parents with the hotel's Gellifawr Woodland Retreat and Emlyn Hotel which are popular wedding venues.
"Simon approached me about two years ago and he seemed to think there was a bit of a gap in the market for an estate agent in Haverfordwest.
"I'm obviously not hands-on day to day but rugby is my main priority at the moment.
"I'm also going to be working with my dad's car business, Cawdor cars. We have six garages covering south west Wales so I'm going to be very busy.
Jamie, Jack, Sarah & Gareth Davies of Blackbear
(Image: Submitted )
"Between Blackbear and working in the car industry with my dad hopefully the transition from when I finished playing rugby will be fairly smooth.
"Once I finish I'll be busy trying to sell houses or cars."
Blackbear credits its runaway success to its blend of the modern and traditional, embracing technology and forming an exclusive partnership with digital agency, The Honey agency, while also maintaining a strong high street presence.
Davies is confident the commitment and drive which helped him reach the top as a player will bode well in the world of business.
"It's going to take a lot of hard work but I'm confident we will continue being successful and go from strength to strength," he said.
"Similar to rugby, if you work hard and are willing to put the hours in you can achieve success. I've got some ambitious expansion plans and Swansea is just the start.
"We will actively be looking to set up franchise operations in areas such as Cardiff, Monmouthshire and Bristol.
"But I've still got a lot left to give as a professional rugby player."
Last summer Davies made the difficult decision to call time on his international career after 77 caps, two Six Nations titles and two British & Irish Lions tours.
Davies is at the tail-end of his career but has been the best scrum-half in Wales by some distance this season, playing a crucial role in the Scarlets' resurgence as they reached the United Rugby Championship play-offs which means they are the only Welsh representative in next season's Investec Champions Cup.
"I think what's been massive for me last season is I retired from international rugby this time last year after the summer tour," Davies tells WalesOnline.
Gareth Davies of Scarlets is one of the form players in Wales right now
(Image: Huw Evans Agency )
"It took a lot of weight off my shoulders. Join WalesOnline Rugby's WhatsApp Channel here to get the breaking news sent straight to your phone for free
"It's great playing for Wales but it comes with a lot of pressure. When things are going well and you are winning, there's no better environment to be in but when things aren't going so well it's tough.
"I just felt last year was the right time for me to walk away. I've thoroughly enjoyed my rugby with the Scarlets last season and I think having the weight of not having to play international rugby really helped me.
"Having a bit of time off during the Six Nations and autumn campaign gave me a chance to recharge my batteries mentally and physically.
"It's also been good to work with some of the young nines at the Scarlets like Archie Hughes.
"It's probably something I've done naturally over the last few years. I'm not the biggest speaker and I don't speak for the sake of it in meetings but I'd like to think that whenever I do speak and whatever points I do bring up they are important messages."
Davies is the elder statesman in the squad but remains a key cog in a Scarlets back division which includes some of the best young talent in Welsh rugby.
And the man from Newcastle Emlyn is confident there is a lot more to come from the Scarlets next season.
"There's been a lot of talk about Macs Page, Blair Murray and Ellis Mee," he said. "They really do deserve that exposure because I really do think they are very exciting players for us.
"Macs has the ability to play wing and centre and is a really exciting player.
"I think they will grow and grow as time goes. It was a good season overall in the end.
"I know we had a disappointing couple of months before Christmas where we lost four or five games by one score, while we also drew a game as well.
"Looking back, if we could have sneaked a win in one or two of those games we could have been right up the table in the mix for a home play-off rather than just sneaking in.
"I think we had a good strong end to the season where every game was important leading up to the last week.
"We had four or five bonus-point wins on the bounce which allowed us to get some momentum.
"But I do think there's a lot more to come from this squad next season."
Davies is already well on the path to forging a successful career as a businessman when he eventually hangs up his boots.
But when will that be and how much has he got left in the tank?
"I've got a year left on my contract with the Scarlets so we shall see," he said. "The main thing for me is I have to be enjoying my rugby.
"I'm really enjoying my rugby at the moment and want to continue. Without the pressure of playing international rugby anymore I think I can continue as a professional for a couple of years yet.
"I might have the opportunity to sign an extension with the Scarlets or if something comes up abroad it is something I'd like to consider.
"I haven't got much interest in coaching or any lines of work like that. To be honest when I finish playing rugby I'm just looking forward to being a fan.
Article continues below
"I will just sit back and enjoy watching rugby. I've got no interest in coaching but I do enjoy doing a bit of broadcasting.
"I've done a fair bit of work with S4C. It is probably something a few years ago I wouldn't have thought I'd have enjoyed but I've loved doing it over the last 18 months."
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Scottish Sun
an hour ago
- Scottish Sun
Scotland boss Steve Clarke says he's ‘suited to getting all the stick' and not being loved ‘doesn't bother him'
Clarke also opened up on replacing a major departure in his Scotland set-up STE ABOUT THAT Scotland boss Steve Clarke says he's 'suited to getting all the stick' and not being loved 'doesn't bother him' Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) STEVE CLARKE isn't feeling much love from the Tartan Army these days. But the Scotland boss insists he has never been the type to bother too much about popularity contests. Sign up for Scottish Sun newsletter Sign up 4 Steve Clarke says he doesn't mind getting stick from supporters Credit: Kenny Ramsay 4 Clarke's Scotland side went down 3-1 to Iceland at Hampden on Friday Credit: Reuters 4 The boss says he's grateful for the chance to put things right against Liechtenstein Credit: PA Gaffer Steve Clarke has spent the weekend poring over the 3-1 defeat to Iceland that saw Scotland make it ten home friendlies without a win. With the vital World Cup qualifiers looming in September, punters are fast losing faith that the national team have any chance of reaching the finals. Clarke admits his side are 'fortunate' to have the chance to rectify Friday's performance so quickly when they face Liechtenstein tomorrow night. But he is willing to take the flak and has full faith Scotland can put things right before the competitive action finally kicks off again. Clarke said: 'As fast as the game goes, you have to recover. Football's never smooth. 'We're fortunate we have a game to put things right. 'I try to be very measured in my approach to football and I try to be very measured in my approach to life. 'I've done alright. I'm over 60 now. I'm still involved in the game. 'So I must have a fair idea of how to deal with the disappointments and how to deal with the highs as well because football, and especially club football, can be week to week — one minute up then one minute down. 'It's a little bit like that in international football but it's more spread out and you have to learn how to deal with it. Scotland fans need to STOP booing Steve Clarke and his players says Kris Boyd 'I think my character is quite suited to being the guy that gets all the stick. 'Everybody likes to be loved, but I'm very good at not going on social media. 'You get a general feel for what's happening in the world of football, but that doesn't bother me too much.' Clarke will end the season by saying goodbye to trusted No 2 John Carver over in Liechtenstein. The friendly in Vaduz is set to be 60-year-old Carver's last in the Scotland coaching set-up after five years alongside Clarke. The Geordie has pledged his future to Polish side Lechia Gdansk, who he's just saved from relegation in Poland's top league — a feat that saw him nominated for the Ekstraklasa Coach of the Season Award. Clarke was reluctant to go into detail about it — but says he has 'lots' of candidates as a potential replacement to work alongside Alan Irvine and goalie coach Chris Woods. Clarke said: 'It will possibly be John's last game with us. We'll decide. 'Me and John will have a good chat after the game and we'll decide what happens going forward. 'If he were to leave us I have lots of people in mind to come in. 4 John Carver is set to leave his role as Clarke's no.2 Credit: Kenny Ramsay 'I'd rather not talk about it now because we just want to concentrate on the game we have in Liechtenstein. We'll talk about it after that.' The sloppiness of the goals Scotland are losing are a concern — but he exonerated rookie keeper Cieran Slicker from blame for the Iceland opener. He admitted: 'I think we could have defended set plays a little bit better. 'We've been fantastic with set-plays but if you look at the goals we conceded on Friday they didn't do what we've been doing over the last four or five years — since Austin MacPhee came in and set us a way of defending set plays. 'The first one comes from a clearance on Cieran's weaker foot that doesn't quite clear the boy in midfield. 'When the ball comes back, we allow the striker to turn and shoot, and nobody was saving that shot because it was a great finish. That's just the way it is. 'The second goal was a ball into the box that we simply didn't deal with inside the six-yard box. 'If you say that Scotland will touch the ball four or five times without any Iceland players touching the ball and it ends up in the back of the net, that has to be a disappointment. 'And at the third goal, the line didn't drop properly and it didn't drop cohesively. 'Those are things that we've always worked on and normally we're very good at, so that was disappointing. 'We've been fantastic at defending set plays for a number of years. They're just 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 per cent down on their concentration, on their application of what we ask them to do. 'And when that happens it shows you can be punished. Scott McTominay's career Born in Lancaster on December 8, 1996 Joined the Manchester United youth system aged five and signed his first professional contract in 2013 Made his Premier League debut against Arsenal in May 2017 McTominay went on to win Carabao Cup and FA Cup with Man Utd Made 255 appearances and scored 29 goals for the Red Devils McTominay joined Napoli in August for £25.7million Born in England, he qualified for Scotland through his dad who's from Helensburgh McTominay was called-up by Scotland in March 2018 and has gone on to become a huge Hampden favourite He was part of the squad at Euro 2020 and Euro 2024 He won his 50th cap while playing against Germany at Euro 2024 McTominay has scored some huge goals for Scotland, including an injury-time winner against Israel and his famous double in the 2-0 win over Spain in Glasgow 'It's very difficult for me to tell because I can't get inside their heads. 'Obviously we've touched on what happened with Cieran. 'Listen, everybody makes a big thing about Cieran. But if you play a young goalkeeper, there's a chance he'll make mistakes. 'I've already touched on the fact that defensively we should have dealt with the two set plays much better than we did. 'Cieran's a good goalkeeper. He trains well, he works well in the camp when he's in. He's just had an unfortunate night. 'He'll bounce back from it, and he'll do well at his club. 'He needs to play more regular games and he obviously knows that. But he's got a big future in front of him.' Scott McTominay and Kieran Tierney weren't on the SFA charter which eventually touched down at Friedrichshafen Airport in Germany last night, an hour north of Vaduz. The travelling party's departure from Scotland was delayed by the late arrival of their aircraft. Clarke said: 'Scott and Kieran both came into this camp carrying some little issues from the season. 'I think if we'd had a longer turnaround between the Iceland and Liechtenstein games they might have had a chance, but this is the end of season for those two. 'The most important thing is to have a good rest over the summer and come back flying in the autumn.' Now Ipswich frontman George Hirst could get another run-out tonight. Clarke added: 'He caught my eye. He had a chance with a header that was probably just too high for him. 'He had a good shot that the goalkeeper made a fantastic save from in the first half. 'He had a good header that the goalkeeper made a fantastic save from in the second half. 'He was on the spot for the tap-in off the goalkeeper was just offside. 'Then Lennon Miller was another who went on and did OK as well.' Keep up to date with ALL the latest news and transfers at the Scottish Sun football page
South Wales Guardian
2 hours ago
- South Wales Guardian
Scotland under pressure to secure victory in Vaduz
Steve Clarke's side lost 3-1 at home to Iceland on Friday in the first fixture of their June friendly double header. Here are some of the key talking points ahead of the game at the Rheinpark Stadium. Scotland are in dire need of a victory ahead of their World Cup qualifying campaign, which takes place in the autumn against Denmark, Belarus and Greece. Scotland looked like they had turned a corner after a solitary win, against Gibraltar, in 16 matches, when they recorded three impressive Nations League victories in a row. But they followed up by losing six goals in Hampden defeats against Greece and Iceland. Squad update. IN: Ross Doohan & Callan Angus Gunn & Robby McCrorie. Congratulations to both goalkeepers on their first senior call-ups 👏#LIESCO — Scotland National Team (@ScotlandNT) June 8, 2025 Steve Clarke called up Aberdeen second-choice keeper Ross Doohan after Cieran Slicker endured a difficult debut in the wake of injuries to Angus Gunn and Robby McCrorie on Friday, and with Craig Gordon, Liam Kelly and Zander Clark all missing through injury. Doohan has 13 Scotland Under-21 caps to his name and nearly 200 first-team appearances and the 27-year-old looks likely to start to give Slicker some respite. Locked-in for MD-1 🔒#LIESCO — Scotland National Team (@ScotlandNT) June 8, 2025 There are only three professionals in the Liechtenstein squad and they are listed at 205 in the FIFA world rankings, although they were on the end of bottom-ranked San Marino's first win for 20 years in November. Liechtenstein have started their qualification campaign with three defeats without netting a goal, the latest a 3-0 loss against Wales. Scotland have laboured to wins in their only two encounters against the Alpine principality. Stephen McManus headed a winner seven minutes into stoppage time at Hampden in September 2010 to saved boss Craig Levein from a disastrous competitive home debut. Mario Frick had grabbed a shock opener on his 36th birthday before Kenny Miller levelled. Craig Mackail-Smith's first goal in his first start for his country was the difference between the sides in Vaduz in the return fixture in the Euro 2012 qualifiers. Clarke signalled he would freshen up the team more than he usually does and he will have to make at least two outfield changes after losing Kieran Tierney and Scott McTominay to injury. He is likely to revert to a back three in the wake of the returning Celtic defender's absence while Andy Irving and Kieran Bowie are pushing for debuts after Lennon Miller won his first cap off the bench against Iceland.
The National
2 hours ago
- The National
Ferguson on how Scotland squad feel about Iceland debacle
Steve Clarke's side turned in an unacceptable performance at Hampden as they lost 3-1 to Iceland. Friendly or not, it was far from good enough. Next up is Liechtenstein away this evening, another friendly but the last game before World Cup qualifying begins against top seeds Denmark. It is the final chance to generate some good feeling going into that and also for players to ensure they stay in the manager's XI. Ferguson admits there are no excuses for Friday night's display and insists the whole squad are on the same page. Simply put, they must get back to winning ways against a side ranked 205th in the world. The Bologna captain said: "There shouldn't be any panic. We've good strong squad, with plenty of quality and experience. "But we do recognise that we need to get back to winning ways and get back to performing at the levels we know we're capable of. "We need to win our next game on Monday night. We need to go and put on a good performance and win the game. "Winning games is what breeds confidence. We need to get back to that." Putting his finger on what went wrong in Iceland is a far less straightforward matter. Read more: Steve Clarke calls up two uncapped goalkeepers as Scotland SOS answered Connor Syme wins KLM Open to claim first DP World Tour title Insisting the team went into the game determined to put on a show for the home crowd, the 25-year-old admits it all ended up being rather flat. Sloppy goals were the order of the day and Iceland weren't troubled enough at the other end, either. "It was a bad night for us," said Ferguson, who will earn his 13th cap if he plays in the Rheinpark Stadion. "In terms of the standards we set ourselves, that performance on Friday night fell well short. "We wanted to go out, put on a performance and get a result. But we never reached the standards that we have set ourselves. It's disappointing. "It was probably a little bit flat. It's hard to put a finger on it in terms of why that was the case. "We conceded an early goal, which naturally does that and makes things a bit flat. "But I think we did get back into the game and started to play a little bit better. "But then we conceded another sloppy goal, which was easily avoidable. "For how bad we were, I don't think Iceland ever put us under any serious pressure. "But we were the home team and we had the onus to go and try and win the game. "We just gave ourselves too much work to do." Asked if there was a psychological element to it, the players asked to go out and play another 90 minutes after a long slog of a season, he went on:"Yeah, maybe, but it's the same for the other team. "I wouldn't really say that's an issue personally. It's been a long hard season for everyone. "You've still got to come here and perform, so there's no excuses is our job, we are here to play for our country. It's a privilege. "Yeah, you can say it's a couple of friendlies at the end of the season, but I don't see it as a problem." Rookie goalkeeper Ciaran Slicker has been criticised after his costly errors and Clarke admitted the 22-year-old wasn't ready for his international debut. The Ipswich youngster was the only one he could turn to after Angus Gunn's early injury, Robby McCrorie also hurt in the warm-up. "It was a difficult night for him", accepted Ferguson. "He probably wasn't expecting to come in and play. "But it's not just Cieran, it's everybody. We all need to go away and have a look at ourselves after that. "But, yeah, the more experienced lads in the changing room will look after him over these next few days. "It's probably the best way for him to learn. That's just the way football works. Those kind of situations make you stronger. He will be fine." Regardless, it is not just Slicker who needs to assess his own performance and the former Aberdeen and Hamilton Accies man added: "As you can imagine, we were just disappointed. The lads were speaking to each other in the dressing room afterwards trying to work out what went wrong. "Everyone was quite down afterwards. But we need to pick ourselves up because we need to go and get a result on Monday night and perform to a much higher standard." Clarke yesterday drafted in Celtic-bound keeper Ross Doohan as well as ex-Queen's Park kid Callan McKenna, now at Bournemouth, to replace Gunn and McCrorie.
