GARETH Davies enjoyed arguably the best moment of his rugby career so far at Twickenham less than six months ago – on Saturday the same venue saw a complete contrast in fortunes for the scrum-half.

The Scarlets ace will forever be remembered as the man who scored Wales’s try when they beat England 28-25 during the pool stages of last autumn’s World Cup.

However, the feelings Davies experienced on that day were at the opposite end of the spectrum to those he had following his side’s 25-21 defeat at the weekend.

“We started off too slowly, a bit like how we started in Dublin,” said a dejected Davies. “It wasn't good enough.

“England were obviously well up for it, and I think it surprised us a bit. We went into our shells. It is very disappointing.

“We spoke about bringing a lot of line speed to shut down some of their outside backs, the likes of Owen Farrell and Jonathan Joseph, we couldn't afford to give them time on the ball.

“We didn’t have any line speed, there were no collisions, they had too much gain-line and fast ball, and Ben Youngs had a nice day behind his pack. They ran the show really well.

“From a defensive point of view, we just weren't there, weren't good enough, especially in the first-half.”

And when comparing Saturday’s game to the World Cup clash, Davies added: “We didn’t speak much about it.

“It was obviously in the back of a lot of the boys’ minds, but this was a completely different game against a different team with new management.

“After that game (World Cup) it was one of the biggest highs of my career so far.

“To be honest, the way I am feeling right now, this is probably one of the biggest lows of my career so far. That’s rugby for you.”

Davies and Wales will lick their wounds before Italy visit the Principality Stadium this Saturday.

“It is going to take us a couple of days to get over this defeat, but we have got a big week’s training and we need to do it for the supporters more than anything,” he said.

“We have got to come away with a big victory against the Italians.”