Davison seeks capital gains
Making his England debut against the USA in the summer the 29-year-old was part of England’s squad for the autumn series, earning a late call-up to the bench for their Twickenham triumph over Australia.
“I enjoyed myself while I was away, but it’s always nice to come back home, see the family and get back with the Falcons lads,” said the Newcastle native, who has played 77 games for the Falcons after being spotted playing for Blaydon by Falcons forwards coach Micky Ward.
“I’m from up here, I love Newcastle and all the lads are my mates, so it’s just a good place for me to be.”
Having enjoyed an extraordinary rise from Blaydon third team to top-level international rugby, the quiet man of the Falcons front row is certainly not one to blow his own trumpet.
“When I was playing down the teams at Blaydon I never even thought about becoming a professional rugby player, never mind playing for England, but I just went with the flow and it’s all happened that way,” he said.
“From playing at Blaydon I had a few A-League games for the Falcons, and when Dean Richards heard I was planning to move to work in Australia he offered me a professional contract to stay in Newcastle.
“I never expected to get into the England squad, to be honest, but it was an amazing experience. I just want to keep working hard with Newcastle and hopefully get back there for the Six Nations.”
Asked to compare life with club and country, Davison said: “Being with England is similar to being with the Falcons in many ways, although with not staying at home on a night it’s ‘rugby, rugby, rugby’ pretty much all the time.
“You’re up training at 6.30am, then you have time for a nap during the day before you’re up again training later on. That side of it is a bit different, but obviously it’s a really high calibre of players and you just try to learn as much as you can from all of them.
“Scrummaging against the likes of Joe Marler and Kyle Sinckler in training was great, because you’re able to get feedback from them afterwards. I’ve obviously played against them for the Falcons before but you don’t have that feedback and learning from them in a club game environment, and it’s a big learning opportunity.
“I’ve hopefully picked up a few things which I can pass on here at the club, and it’s great to be back involved again with Newcastle.”
Having been part of the Falcons side which drew 24-24 in the snow against Worcester Warriors on Saturday, the versatile front-rower is well aware of the challenge posed by an Exiles side who defeated champions Harlequins the same day.
“Irish have been going well in the past few weeks and are just above us in the league,” said Davison.
“Hopefully we can improve on last week, put in a shift and get a good win down there to get ourselves up the table a bit.”
