Terry Davies
Revered Wales and Lions rugby player with ‘a real aura’ who was one of the great old-style full-backs
TERRY DAVIES, who has died aged 88, was an outstanding full-back for Wales in the 1950s, winning 21 caps, the last three as captain; his career peaked on the British and Irish Lions tour of New Zealand in 1959, when he was top scorer and played in the only winning Test of the series.
He was one of the last of the old-style full-backs who saw their job as being the final line of defence, catching the high balls and kicking them a prodigious length into touch. According to the official history of Welsh rugby, “he could bring down his man in a tackle like a lumberjack with an axe.” He is also credited with being “a place-kicker of laser beam accuracy.”
In 1968 the law was changed to allow the ball to be kicked directly into touch only from within the defender’s 25-yard line. This had the effect of creating running full-backs like JPR Williams, who brought the ball out of defence into a handling attack rather than kicking it away.
Davies, a good-looking boy of 18 when he made his debut for Swansea in 1951 (he moved to Llanelli five years later), was a boyhood hero to great players like Gareth Edwards and Phil Bennett. Edwards said: “I was a fan and sought his autograph. He was someone who stood out for me from a lot of exceptional players who were around at that time.”
Bennett recalled: “I was lucky as a young boy to see Terry at his peak. He played with a real aura about him. He could kick and tackle powerfully and also break the line. He was an outstanding player.”
Terence John Davies was born on September 24 1932 at Llwynhendy, a village just outside Llanelli in Carmarthenshire. He was educated at Bynea village school and at the Strade school in Llanelli. When he was 14, the games master, a former Llanelli player, invited the then diminutive Davies to tackle him. The teacher lay winded and limped off to the staff room, saying: “That boy will play for Wales.”
Davies first played for the Bynea club and soon won representative honours, playing for West Wales and helping Carmarthenshire to beat Monmouthshire, after which he was described as “the possessor of a safe pair of hands and a cool head. His positioning was faultless and time and again he drove the Monmouthshire forwards back with long, accurate kicks.”
When he chose to join the Swansea club, rather than Llanelli, it caused a minor storm. He explained: “For a Llanelli boy to go and play for Swansea in those days was virtually treason and you were regarded as a traitor. Very few players from this side of Loughor Bridge ever played for the Jacks and I took some stick.”
The reason he avoided Llanelli was that the incumbent Welsh full-back, Gerwyn Williams, played for the Scarlets and Davies saw little chance of getting into the side.
He looked so young that when he first turned out for Swansea, he was turned away from the team bus by the driver, who could not believe he was old enough to play. It did not help, when he did climb aboard, that the driver had to stop the bus twice because Davies was being sick with nerves. None the less, he played his part in the club’s hard-fought victory over Ebbw Vale.
When his brother Len, who was three years older, came to Wales on his National Service to play for his regiment against Glamorgan Wanderers, they were short of a player and he persuaded Terry to stand in. The fake soldier won the game with a drop goal and Glamorgan Wanderers asked if they could sign him up.
Terry Davies did his own National Service in the Royal Marines and played for the Royal Navy and Devonport Services. He played his first game for Wales in a loss against England in 1953, though he kicked a penalty goal in the 8-3 defeat. Wales had, controversially, left Cliff Morgan out of the team. Davies held his place for the final three matches of the Five Nations championship, beating France, Scotland and Ireland.
He looked set for a long career as Welsh full-back, but injured his shoulder badly in Romania in a pre-season game for Llanelli early in 1954, crashing into a concrete surround, and did not play for Wales again for three years after his shoulder had been wired up in a difficult operation.
His brother Len went on to get three Welsh caps in 1954 and 1955 as a flanker, winning all the games in which he appeared, before dying of leukaemia aged 26.
While he was recovering from his long-term injury, Davies had a dispute with the Swansea club, who refused his request for a transfer. He played some games for Bynea, where he had gone to live and built himself a house. He became a timber merchant and later had his own saw mill.
In 1956 he finally joined the Scarlets and regained his place in the Welsh team the following year. In 1958, playing on a stormy day against England at Twickenham, Davies levelled the score at 3-3 with a penalty goal. He attempted a late penalty from at least 50 yards, against the wind, to win the match. The ball rebounded from the crossbar.
After the match some Welsh fans crept into the ground and cut the crossbar into three pieces, taking one back to Wales for presentation to an embarrassed Davies, who offered to repair the crossbar in his timber works and return it to Twickenham.
Davies played in all the Welsh games in the Five Nations of 1958 and 1959 and went on tour with the Lions to New Zealand at the end of the latter season. He and Ken Scotland were rivals for the full-back spot, and each played there in two of the four Tests.
Even though he played in only 13 of the Lions’ 31 matches, mainly because of injury, he scored more points than anyone else on the tour and came back from injury to take part in the final Test at Auckland, the only one the Lions won.
He played only one game for Wales in 1960 and three games in his final season, 1961, in which he was made captain, including a victory over England in Cardiff. After that he retired, though he played on for a few games for Bynea.
He made 53 appearances for Swansea and 150 for Llanelli. In 2008 he was admitted to the Welsh Hall of Rugby Fame and in 2013 he was appointed MBE for service to the communities of Bynea and Llanelli. In 2016 he published his autobiography, Terry Davies – Wales’s First Superstar Full-back.
In 1961 Terry Davies married Gillian James, who survives him after 60 years of marriage along with their daughter and two sons.
Terry Davies, born September 24 1932, died August 5 2021