A Newcastle Emlyn rugby player has been praised by his coach after scoring a landmark number of tries for the Scarlets.

Scrum-half Gareth Davies, who will be celebrating his 34th birthday shortly, recently celebrated scoring his 50th league try.

By doing so, he became just the second Welshman to hit this milestone in the BKT URC matches. Being beaten only by his Scarlets colleague Steff Evans on 54.

The match against Zebre Parma was especially significant as Davies scored a double, pushing his league tries total to the impressive figure.

His coach, Dwayne Peel - a former scrum-half - didn’t hide his appreciation.

Peel said: "If you look at him as a try scorer, he has been phenomenal."

The Scarlets' coach was even more effusive about Davies' skills on the pitch, drawing parallels with top football strikers.

With only five players ahead of him in the all-time list - Evans as previously mentioned, Tim Visser and DTH Van Der Merwe (both on 58), Craig Gilroy (59) and Tommy Bowe on 67), Davies is now the highest-scoring scrum-half in the competition’s history.

He is hoping to add to his record when he squares up against Dragons RFC on Saturday in the final game of the season.

Davies's attacking prowess has been likened to a top football striker by his coach.

Peel went on to explain: "It’s very similar to strikers in football.

"The guys who score the goals from four or five yards out, those are the ones that get in the right place at the right time.”

Peel also pinpointed Davies' fighting spirit as the reason behind his ongoing effectiveness.

He said: "He is the ultimate competitor really.

"He wants to fight every day in training.

"He doesn’t like anyone getting one over on him."

As a testament to Davies’ inspiring persona on the field, Scarlets skipper Ryan Elias said: "He is a calming voice and a massive help to me.

"I will speak to him to make sure he gets stuck into the forwards and not to let us get lazy."

Davies, who has now scored a total of 66 Scarlets tries in all competitions, plus 16 for Wales, believes this string of victories will give the team a boost going into their concluding match.

After the latest successful match against Zebre, Davies said: "It was nice to have a good win and hopefully it will give us a bit of momentum going into the last game of the season."

Considering fellow Wales scrum-half Tomos Williams is recovering from an ankle ligament injury, Davies seems to be the favourite to lock in a starting spot in the match against South Africa next month at Twickenham.

Davies' performance on Judgement Day will weigh heavily on whether he will claim this spot and once again showcase his footballers’ striker-like finesse on the rugby field.