British and Irish Lions Tour: Jonathan Davies desperate to take one chance at No 13 jersey

Jonathan Davies will get his first full chance to claim a place in the British and Irish Lions Tests against the All Blacks this weekend after having his opening audition cut shot by a nasty blow to the head, something that he has had to deal with for the first time, and he hopes to show Warren Gatland what he can bring by adding a new dimension to the touring party.

Davies was unlucky to suffer a strong blow to the head on a crash ball during the victory over the Crusaders last weekend, the incident coming just short of the 30-minute mark. The Wales centre, playing in his first game of the tour, initially looked like he would be fit to continue, but after being pulled off for a Head Injury Assessment [HIA], a failure to answer questions correctly meant he could not return.

Having completed the protocols required to return to action over the last few days, Davies has been named for the game with the Maori All Blacks in an exciting centre partnership outside Ben Te’o that, all things going well, looks likely to start the first Test on 24 June.

“It's gone pretty smoothly,” Davies said on Thursday. “It's my first experience of that and everything's fine. The medical team has taken care of me and I trained this morning, training this afternoon and I'll do a bit of contact this afternoon. I feel good to go.

“I passed the questions that were asked when I first got up and then they said they wanted to have a second look at me and it was just a case of trying to get it done as quickly as possible. It was the right call, I failed the HIA in the medical room and it was definitely the right call.

“Personally it's hugely frustrating. The amount of game time I've played, I would have liked to have played a lot more but these things happen and it's how you react and prepare now for the next game. Fortunately now, it's a hit out now this Saturday to look forward to.”

The one silver lining is that the race for the outside centre shirt would appear wide open. While Davies was the pre-tour favourite for the position, his injury and Jonathan Joseph’s impressive showing in the 23-22 defeat by the Highlanders means that Gatland has plenty to ponder for the first Test.

Davies, though, brings plenty of aspects to his game that Joseph does not. He has previous Lions experience, having started all three Tests in 2013, and he hopes to provide part of the New Zealand offload game that has given the Lions so many issues in their games against Super Rugby opposition, albeit with the accuracy that the Kiwis lack.

“I think if you look at some of the oppositions’ offloading they love to keep the ball alive but sometimes sacrifice accuracy in those offloads,” Davies explained. “Win the collision, make sure that you’re going forward and then looking to offload. I think that they’ll [New Zealand] look to offload even if they’re going backwards sometimes.

“For us it is making sure that I want to play to my strengths and make sure that when we get the ball we’re accurately using the athletes that we have behind. We’ve got the likes of George North and Anthony Watson, we’ve got to make sure that the ball goes to their hands in space. It’s a good thing for me to test myself and hopefully we can get something out of that this weekend.”