If Davies goes, it is anticipated his assistant, Gareth Jenkins, will return to Llanelli.
Over the past week Alex Evans, the Australian who has guided Cardiff to the brink of the Welsh championship, has been persistently touted as a coaching successor, and John Hart, the former New Zealand and Auckland coach, is another reported to have been sounded out.As for the players, they backed Davies before after Wales had been summarily dismissed from the 1991 World Cup and persuaded him to agree to extend what had been a temporary appointment.And they do so again despite Wales’s fall from grace from being last season’s champions to being contenders with the Irish for this season’s wooden spoon. But it now appears that Davies may not survive whatever the result – which would have the extraordinary corollary of sending Wales into the World Cup with a brand-new coach, appointed barely two months before the tournament kicks off. He has already said he expects “the bullet” if his team lose to Ireland in Cardiff tomorrow. “Terry’s fitness is a blessed relief,” The Irish manager, Noel Murphy, declared.Five Nations focus, page 46. Wales’s two most experienced and distinguished current internationals yesterday came to the aid of Alan Davies as Davies’s tenure as Wales coach grew increasingly precarious, writes Steve Bale.

John Hall will now lead the side.The Ireland captain, Terry Kingston, who has had a rib injury, was passed fit in Dublin yesterday before he and his team travelled to Wales for tomorrow’s wooden spoon match. We’ve been getting better and we’ll have to improve still more if we are to do anything in the World Cup.”England will make a decision on the fitness of their reserve hooker, Graham Dawe, this morning and have Gregg Botterman of Saracens rather than the Bath flanker-turned-hooker Gareth Adams on stand-by. Dawe strained a calf on Wednesday and did not train yesterday.In South Africa the England A captain, Steve Bates, has withdrawn from the team to play Natal tomorrow and has been replaced at scrum-half by Matthew Dawson of Northampton with Bates’s Wasps understudy Andy Gomarsall being flown in to sit on the bench. “We shouldn’t get too excited just because we’ve had four wins this season. “The world will not judge us on how we do in the Five Nations,” Ken Milne said as the Scottish team flew from Edinburgh to Heathrow. But we’ve still progressed significantly as a team and in terms of the style of play we saw was necessary when we were there last year.”Never mind the Grand Slam, a senior Scot yesterday warned. Maybe in 1990 they still hadn’t earned it.” The change is such that England are realistic World Cup contenders, though this is not a thought Carling will allow until tomorrow’s final whistle.”Conditions haven’t replicated what we will come across in Durban so it’s been hard to play the kind of rugby we know we need to play out there.

Carling insists it is the events of last year rather than five years ago that have impinged on English preparations for tomorrow’s encounter.
His England have long since moved on: “Now in world terms England are viewed with some respect, which they have earned. Will Carling lay back and thought of Scotland yesterday and came up with this unarguable conclusion about tomorrow’s Grand Slam match at Twickenham: “I believe if we fulfil our potential, then we will win the game. We are good enough.”

But then the England captain was made to think of the previous Grand Slam match at Murrayfield in 1990 and so to think again. “We were good enough in 1990 and we didn’t win the game,” he said. The club are working on the premise that Graham Dawe, 35, cannot carry on for ever and Wood, who plays in Limerick for Garryowen, has already signed his transfer form.. Quite apart from the England man’s stature, the club is concerned about the future of their Scotland lock, Andy Reed, after a back operation.Bath’s recruitment extends beyond Bayfield to Keith Wood, who two months ago was the most exciting new forward in the Five Nations’ Championship but has since lost his place as Ireland’s hooker to Terry Kingston and has been carrying a persistent shoulder injury.

This means his signature is still awaited, which in turn means his availability for league and cup rugby would be delayed at least until November. In any case, with Northampton playing their fellow relegation candidates, Harlequins, a week tomorrow, the projected transfer is heavily conditional.
But if he did make the move, it would be a coup of the biggest significance for the champions, what with Bayfield standing 6ft 10in. “It’s true the club have been in detailed discussions with him,” a Bath spokesman said last night. Much to Bath’s satisfaction, the Lions lock, Martin Bayfield – about to win his 22nd England cap – has told them that if Northampton are relegated he will be joining them next season, writes Steve Bale. “It’s fine saying the pressure doesn’t get to you but I had an awful feeling that I’d be standing out here saying that another year had passed me by,” he said.”I felt if we got to Thursday night without a winner you would see me hanging on a rope from the top of the stands.” The only hanging to be done now, though, is with the black and yellow silks of Master Oats, which yesterday gloriously earned their place in the Festival Hall of Fame.Results, report, racecards,page 45. The trainer insisted all week that he did not have to prove himself after winning a Grand National, but his mind contained a different message. And it was the best thing I’ve ever done.”For Williamson, and Bailey, there had been no need for self-justification, but there was nevertheless a sense of intense relief in the camp.

“I thought it was crazy being sent to Yogi Breisner [the horse and jockey tutor],” the rider said “But I went. “From the moment you start riding a pony you want to win a race at Cheltenham and the peak is the Gold Cup.”Norman thanked Kim, and Kim thanked Norman, which might have been unthinkable for those who witnessed a conversation when the trainer first signed up Williamson as stable jockey He suggested he should go for a riding lesson. “The money could pay for a new hostel for the lads,” the trainer said.Williamson himself was incredulous after a dismount which suggested his saddle has an ejector-seat facility “This is what I’ve dreamed of all my life,” he said. “I’m shell- shocked and I really can’t believe it’s happened.”When the reality emerges, Bailey will have to remember to collect the money he has won on Master Oats and Alderbrook He backed them both ante- post at 50-1. Staff at his Upper Lambourn yard might like to hold him to the offer he made yesterday.