London Welsh have signed record-breaking fly half Alex Davies from Plymouth Albion.
The 25-year-old, who can also play full back, broke one Albion record and equalled another during a tremendous season at Brickfields last year, on his way to racking up 236 points in 25 Championship appearances.
Davies kicked a record-breaking seven penalties in Plymouth’s 35-24 relegation play-off victory over Birmingham & Solihull, having earlier in the season equalled the club’s record for most points in a league match by scoring 26 points against the same opposition at Damson Park.
He fell just short of the Chris Atkinson’s record for the most league points scored in a season, but was still only the third Albion player since the club were promoted back into English rugby’s second tier in 2002 to score over 200 points in a season.
And as if that wasn’t enough, he ended last season by helping Lancashire complete a hat-trick of Bill Beaumont Cup victories to carry off the County Championship for a record 21st time by kicking seven points in a 32-23 victory over Hertfordshire at Twickenham.
Davies began his career at Sale Sharks Academy, where he spent two years before joining Waterloo RFC in National League One. He ended his second season at Waterloo by helping the club win the Lancashire Cup for the seventh time, with a 30-19 win over Sedgley Park.
Davies joined Plymouth Albion in 2008, although a hernia operation restricted him to just 12 appearances in his debut season. In 2009/10 his haul of 87 Championship points saw him voted Most Promising Young Player by the club’s supporters.
He spent the summer of 2010 in New Zealand under the stewardship of former Brickfields coach Brett McCormack at Green Island Rugby Club in Dunedin, and it clearly proved a beneficial experience judging by his performances last season. It was the second time Davies had spent a summer in New Zealand. In 2006 he was top scorer for North Otago, where he played inside all Black Ben Smith, with 115 first-class points.
Davies has also represented England Counties.
“The first goal for Welsh is to get promoted and for me personally I just want to play and help the team in any way I can,” said Davies “It’s also a really good opportunity to learn from someone like Gordon Ross and for me to develop as a rugby player.
“Last season was pretty positive for me. I really enjoyed it and had some good success with the boot. We were pretty unlucky as a team – we lost a few games in the last few minutes. So it was a bit of a difficult season for Plymouth, but when it got into the relegation play-offs we put a few performances together. In my first two seasons at Plymouth I only played a handful of games, so to get near enough to a full season and kick as well as I did was really pleasing for me and I just want to continue that and develop.
“I really enjoyed playing for Lancashire. It’s error free rugby and you just enjoy yourself. I’ve got a lot of friends back in Lancashire so it’s really good to play with them again, and to get a Twickenham win was very special. I loved the lifestyle in New Zealand and it was an amazing experience. There’s a really good atmosphere around training and the skill levels are just unbelievable – from 1-15 they are all really skilful players and they’re very tactical as well.”