Phil Davies
Encyclopedia
Phil Davies is a village in the Dulais Valley, Wales, UK. It lies north-east of Neath. Seven Sisters falls within the Seven Sisters ward of Neath Port Talbot county borough.-History:...
) is a Welsh
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
former rugby union
Rugby union
Rugby union, often simply referred to as rugby, is a full contact team sport which originated in England in the early 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand...
footballer of the 1980s and 90s.
Rugby career
Davies played his club rugby for LlanelliLlanelli RFC
Llanelli Rugby Football Club is a Welsh rugby union club founded in 1875 and its senior team is one of the leading club sides in Wales. The club began the 2008-09 season at their historic home ground of Stradey Park in Llanelli, but moved in November 2008 to the new Parc y Scarlets in adjacent...
and enjoyed a distinguished 46 cap career for Wales
Wales national rugby union team
The Wales national rugby union team represent Wales in international rugby union tournaments. They compete annually in the Six Nations Championship with England, France, Ireland, Italy and Scotland. Wales have won the Six Nations and its predecessors 24 times outright, second only to England with...
between 1985 and 1995. It was during this period that Welsh packs became far less dominant than in the glory days of the 1970s and Davies, along with the likes of David Pickering
David Pickering (rugby player)
David Francis Pickering is a former Wales international rugby union player. He played club rugby for Llanelli RFC and Neath RFC. He won 23 caps for Wales between 1983 and 1987 and captained the national team on eight occasions....
and Bob Norster
Bob Norster
Robert Leonard "Bob" Norster is a former Welsh international rugby union player. He was selected for the 1983 British Lions tour to New Zealand and the 1989 British Lions tour to Australia. He played club rugby for Cardiff RFC....
, was one of the few class forwards that his side could muster.
The mustachioed Davies was a useful addition to the side mostly because of his offensive ability and the fact that he could play either as flanker, number eight or lock forward.
His career is also memorable for his involvement in the so called "Battle of Cardiff" in 1987, an extremely violent clash between Wales and England
England national rugby union team
The England national rugby union team represents England in rugby union. They compete in the annual Six Nations Championship with France, Ireland, Scotland, Italy, and Wales. They have won this championship on 26 occasions, 12 times winning the Grand Slam, making them the most successful team in...
that saw Davies wind up on the wrong end of lock Wade Dooley
Wade Dooley
Wade Dooley is a former England rugby union international who played lock forward. He played for his country 55 times and was known as the "Blackpool Tower", as a result of being 6 feet 8 inches tall and a police officer with Lancashire Constabulary in Blackpool.Dooley was born in Warrington,...
's fist. Davies' first international appearance came in a 24–15 victory over England in Cardiff
Cardiff
Cardiff is the capital, largest city and most populous county of Wales and the 10th largest city in the United Kingdom. The city is Wales' chief commercial centre, the base for most national cultural and sporting institutions, the Welsh national media, and the seat of the National Assembly for...
, a game that saw his brother-in-law, Jonathan Davies, also make his debut. England, who had not won in Cardiff since 1963, led the game 15–12, before fullback Chris Martin failed to take a high kick and Davies (Jonathan) scored a crucial try
Try
A try is the major way of scoring points in rugby league and rugby union football. A try is scored by grounding the ball in the opposition's in-goal area...
. Davies' next appearance came in a 40–3 victory against Fiji
Fiji national rugby union team
The Fiji national rugby union team is a member of the Pacific Islands Rugby Alliance formerly along with Samoa and Tonga. In 2009, Samoa announced their departure from the Pacific Islands Rugby Alliance, leaving just Fiji and Tonga. Fiji are ranked sixteenth in the world by the IRB as of 26...
at the Arms Park
Cardiff Arms Park
Cardiff Arms Park , also known as The Arms Park, is primarily known as a rugby union stadium, but it also has a bowling green, and is situated in the centre of Cardiff, Wales. The Arms Park was host to the British Empire and Commonwealth Games in 1958, and hosted four games in the 1991 Rugby World...
, and he marked the occasion by scoring two of his side's seven tries
Try
A try is the major way of scoring points in rugby league and rugby union football. A try is scored by grounding the ball in the opposition's in-goal area...
.
The following year Davies played in seven tests in total, but was denied a possible Triple Crown
Triple Crown (Rugby Union)
In rugby union, the Triple Crown is an honour contested annually by the four national teams of the British Isles who compete within the larger Six Nations Championship: England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales. If any one team manages to win all their games against the other three they win the...
when his side were beaten 21–18 by England in the first match of the campaign. Wales recovered to beat Scotland
Scotland national rugby union team
The Scotland national rugby union team represent Scotland in international rugby union. Rugby union in Scotland is administered by the Scottish Rugby Union. The Scotland rugby union team is currently ranked eighth in the IRB World Rankings as of 19 September 2011...
and Ireland
Ireland national rugby union team
The Ireland national rugby union team represents the island of Ireland in rugby union. The team competes annually in the Six Nations Championship and every four years in the Rugby World Cup, where they reached the quarter-final stage in all but two competitions The Ireland national rugby union...
before losing to France
France national rugby union team
The France national rugby union team represents France in rugby union. They compete annually against England, Ireland, Italy, Scotland and Wales in the Six Nations Championship. They have won the championship outright sixteen times, shared it a further eight times, and have completed nine grand slams...
. Davies and his teammates then embarked on a short tour of the Southern Hemisphere
Southern Hemisphere
The Southern Hemisphere is the part of Earth that lies south of the equator. The word hemisphere literally means 'half ball' or "half sphere"...
as part of the side's preparation for the 1987 Rugby World Cup
1987 Rugby World Cup
The 1987 Rugby World Cup was the first Rugby World Cup. New Zealand and Australia agreed to co-host the first ever tournament with New Zealand hosting seventeen pool stage matches, two quarter-finals and the final with Australia being the junior partner hosting seven pool matches, two...
and included victories over Fiji, Tonga
Tonga national rugby union team
The Tonga national rugby union team is nicknamed Ikale Tahi . Like their Polynesian neighbours, the Tongans start their matches with a war dance – the Kailao . They are members of the Pacific Islands Rugby Alliance along with Fiji and Samoa...
and Western Samoa
Samoa national rugby union team
The Manu Samoa is the men's representative side of the Samoa Rugby Union in both the 15's and the 7's for international competitions. The Samoa Rugby Union is owned by the affiliated rugby unions of Samoa. In Samoa, Manu Samoa is in honour of a famous Samoan warrior. From 1924 to 1997 Samoa was...
. The games against Fiji and Samoa passed with relatively little incident, but the Tonga test was notable for its violence and both Davies and Adrian Hadley
Adrian Hadley
Adrian Michael Hadley is a former Wales international rugby union and rugby league player, as a . He played his club rugby for Cardiff and was in the Wales rugby union squad for the 1987 Rugby World Cup.-Rugby union career:...
found themselves on the receiving end of opposition fists, not for the last time in Davies' case.
Davies was director of rugby at Leeds Tykes from 1996 to 2006 before resigning his post. Davies said at the time: "I have no immediate plans to go elsewhere, rather I just feel it's time to take a break. I want to make it clear this mutual decision has nothing to do with the current situation at Leeds. It is after much soul searching and discussion with my family and Leeds Tykes that I have decided to resign my post."
Davies added: "The last 10 years has been an amazing journey with a fantastic group of people, helping to take the club from National League Three to Heineken Cup
Heineken Cup
The Heineken Cup is one of two annual rugby union competitions organised by European Rugby Cup involving leading club, regional and provincial teams from the six International Rugby Board countries in Europe whose national teams compete in the Six Nations Championship: England, France, Ireland,...
rugby and winning the Powergen Cup last season. I will have some time out with my family and reflect upon my career and future, after a decade at this wonderful club."
International career record
P: 46, W: 23, D: 1, L: 22Test Points: 21
Tries: 5