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Thinking and talking about rugby every day for 50+ years
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MY TAKE ON SOME OF THE RUGBY NEWS STORIES WHICH COME INTO MY WORLD.
17 September 2015
*THINGS YOU MIGHT NOT HAVE KNOWN ABOUT THIS YEAR'S NEW ALL BLACK WORLD CUP PLAYERS* Read more »
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17 August 2015
Offering Knighthoods and talk of him becoming our Prime Minister are just not fair on Richie McCaw. Back off Kiwis! And give our All Black captain room to be just that! Read more »
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16 August 2015
Elsewhere on this website I have offered my views on all of the very public discussion and chat about whether Richie McCaw might or might not be Knighted for his 'Services to Rugby.' But out of the final All Blacks pre-Rugby World Cup game (the 41-13 win over Australia) there were a couple of other good and bad things which also merit discussion. Read more »
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20 July 2015
RANDOM THOUGHTS ON THE ALL BLACKS V ARGENTINA TEST MATCH 18 JULY 2015 ..... Read more »
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(To the left); The Samoan Head of State, Tuiatua Tupua Tamasese Efi and (to the right) the Prime Minister Tuilaepa Lupesoliai Sailele Malielegaoi (thanks Ken!) But who's the Palagi in the light blue shirt clapping so keenly?
9 July 2015
This is my summary of everything I gleaned about New Zealand v Samoa game in Apia - from the ample sofa at my place in Wellington. Weather, match report, & TV review it's all here. Read more »
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8 July 2015
A brief history of the first years of contact between NZ rugby and Samoa. And Samoa's best moments. Read more »
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The second 'Barbed Wire' test match of 1981; and South Africa fights back.
The dramatic test at Athletic Park has SA winning 24-12. More protests in the Wellington Streets but the three-test series is set up at one-all.
DAVIES, GERALD
Cardiff, London Welsh and Wales
46 internationals for Wales 1966–78
5 internationals for British Isles 1968–71
One of the most brilliant wings the game has known, Gerald Davies was the prince of sidesteppers, a master of speed and a crowd-pleaser in the extreme. Had he not missed several tours for personal reasons, his talent would have been more widely acclaimed.
Davies finished his schooling and education at Loughborough College and Cambridge University. Imbued with their spirit of playing enjoyable rugby, he soon made his way into the Welsh team. His first international was against Australia in 1966, as a centre.
He played 12 full internationals in that position before making the change to the wing. If he was a success as a centre (good enough to be chosen as a British Lion to South Africa in 1968) he became a wing of exceptional class. His size (only 73kg – 111/2 stone) meant that he was rapidly becoming outmoded as a centre at a time when crash-ball specialists were being used more and more. It was as a wing that he could display more expressively his talents for speed and balance.
Davies was considered one of the best sidesteppers the game has seen, especially off his right foot. Many of his markers and opponents could attest to this, none more so than the Hawke’s Bay team in New Zealand in 1971, which played the British Isles at Napier. Davies sidestepped repeatedly at high speed and ran in four brilliant tries.
Davies played all four test matches for the Lions on that tour, having earlier played in the third test at Cape Town in South Africa in 1968. He declined to tour twice with the Lions, to South Africa in 1974 (uncomfortable with what he had seen of the apartheid policies in 1968) and to New Zealand in 1977, but continued as an international until June 1978, when he quit at the age of 33. His last test match was Wales v Australia at the Sydney Cricket Ground.
At the time his 46 appearances on the wing and at centre made him Wales’s most-capped three-quarter. He and Gareth Edwards then shared the record (20) as the highest try-scorers in Welsh internationals.
Gerald Davies later joined the list of former players who wrote and broadcast about the game. He had a number of books published and was also been an expert television presenter and commentator.
His standing in Wales was such that he was chosen to be the Opening Ceremony ‘voice’ of the Rugby World Cup in Cardiff in 1999.
In 2009 the respect in which Gerald Davies was held was confirmed when he was invited to be the Manager of the British and Irish touring team to South Africa. He also played significant roles as a member of the Board of Directors for the Welsh Rugby Union and a sitting member of the International Rugby Board.
From Wyn Gruffydd - the Welsh broadcaster; 'How Do You Know a girl from Cardiff has had an Orgasm?'
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