Jonathan Davies,

OBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

(born 24 October 1962) is a Welsh former rugby player who played in the 1980s and 1990s, and who represented Wales in both

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

and

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as rugby league in English-speaking countries and rugby 13/XIII in non-Anglophone Europe, is a contact sport, full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular Rugby league playin ...

. A goal-kicking backline player, he played his club rugby in Wales, England and Australia. Nicknamed 'Jiffy', Davies has since become a television commentator for both codes and a media personality, in both the Welsh and English languages.

Biography

Jonathan Davies was born in

Trimsaran Trimsaran is a community and former mining village which lies on the B4308 between Llanelli and Kidwelly, in Carmarthenshire, Wales. Trimsaran is six miles (10 km) from Llanelli, and from Carmarthen. It is close to Burry Port harbour, P ...

Carmarthenshire Carmarthenshire (; or informally ') is a Principal areas of Wales, county in the South West Wales, south-west of Wales. The three largest towns are Llanelli, Carmarthen and Ammanford. Carmarthen is the county town and administrative centre. ...

on 24 October 1962, the son of Diana and Len Davies. Davies' father worked in Trostre,

Llanelli ; ) is a market town and community (Wales), community in Carmarthenshire and the Preserved counties of Wales, preserved county of Dyfed, Wales. It is on the estuary of the River Loughor and is the largest town in the Principal areas of Wales, ...

and his mother was a home-maker. Davies started school at Trimsaran Primary School, where he was part of the Welsh medium class. His teacher Meirion Davies introduced him to rugby, and he started playing sevens. He attended Gwendraeth Grammar School, where he met his first wife Karen Hopkins, whom he married ten years later.

Rugby union

In 1974 Davies played for the very first time at

Cardiff Arms Park Cardiff Arms Park (), also known as The Arms Park, is primarily a rugby union stadium, and also has a bowling green. It is situated in Cardiff, Wales, next to the Millennium Stadium. The Arms Park was host to the 1958 British Empire and Common ...

, when he was chosen for the West Wales Under 12s. He started his career at amateur level with Trimsaran RFC. His father Len had also played for and captained Trimsaran Rugby Club. Age 17, Davies left school and became an apprentice painter and decorator. After developing at Trimsaran, he was given a trial with

but was rejected.

Neath Neath (; ) is a market town and Community (Wales), community situated in the Neath Port Talbot, Neath Port Talbot County Borough, Wales. The town had a population of 50,658 in 2011. The community of the parish of Neath had a population of 19,2 ...

gave him another chance and he signed with them in 1982, selected to play at

fly-half In the game of rugby union, there are 15 players on each team, comprising eight forwards (wearing jerseys numbered 1–8) and seven backs (numbered 9–15). In addition, there may be up to eight replacement players "on the bench", numbered 16� ...

. After 35 games for Neath, Davies was selected to play for

Wales Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...

, against

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

at the

. After scoring a try and a drop goal, Davies was named

Man of the Match In team sport, a player of the match award (also known as man of the match or woman of the match) is often given to the most outstanding player in a particular match. This can be a player from either team, although the player is generally chose ...

in the Welsh victory. He was made captain at Neath before being transferred to Llanelli. In 1988 Davies played a part in the Triple Crown success for Wales and between 1985 and 1997 he won 37 rugby union caps. Injuries during the 1988 New Zealand tour meant Davies captained the side in four games. The two tests were lost by fifty point margins, although Davies did score a try in the second. Davies was blamed in the media for the surprising Welsh defeat by

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

. As Llanelli placed pressure on him from the WRU to commit himself wholeheartedly to them, and despite being widely touted as the first choice fly-half for the upcoming British Lions tour to Australia, he decided for the best interests of his family to move to the

team

Widnes Widnes ( ) is an Industrial city, industrial town in the Borough of Halton, Cheshire, England, which at the 2021–2022 United Kingdom censuses, 2021 census had a population of 62,400. Historic counties of England, Historically in Lancashire, ...

, who signed him for a record fee of £230,000. Davies was recruited into

by Jim Mills and Doug Laughton. He would later return to rugby union.

Rugby league

Widnes

Davies started his professional

career during the

1989–90 Rugby Football League season The 1989–90 Rugby Football League season was the 95th ever season of professional rugby league football in Britain. Fourteen teams competed from August, 1989 until May, 1990 for the Stones Bitter Championship, Premiership Trophy and Silk Cut ...

with defending champions Widnes. He played for them as a in their 1989 World Club Challenge victory against the visiting

Canberra Raiders The Canberra Raiders are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in the national capital city of Canberra, Australian Capital Territory. They have competed in Australasia's elite rugby league competition, the National Rugb ...

. He was selected to play for

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-west coast of continental Europe, consisting of the countries England, Scotland, and Wales. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the List of European ...

during the 1989–1992 Rugby League World Cup tournament. During the 1990–91 season Davies played left- and scored 4

conversion Conversion or convert may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * ''The Convert'', a 2023 film produced by Jump Film & Television and Brouhaha Entertainment * "Conversion" (''Doctor Who'' audio), an episode of the audio drama ''Cyberman'' * ...

s in

' 24–18 victory over

Salford Salford ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city in Greater Manchester, England, on the western bank of the River Irwell which forms its boundary with Manchester city centre. Landmarks include the former Salford Town Hall, town hall, ...

in the 1990 Lancashire Cup Final at

Central Park Central Park is an urban park between the Upper West Side and Upper East Side neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City, and the first landscaped park in the United States. It is the List of parks in New York City, sixth-largest park in the ...

Wigan Wigan ( ) is a town in Greater Manchester, England. The town is midway between the two cities of Manchester, to the south-east, and Liverpool, to the south-west. It is the largest settlement in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan and is its ad ...

on Saturday 29 September 1990.

Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs

In 1991, Davies took on a further challenge when he spent the summer in

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

playing in the

1991 NSWRL season The 1991 NSWRL season was the eighty-fourth season of professional rugby league football in Australia. This year the New South Wales Rugby League experimented with a Draft (sports), draft system for the first time. Sixteen clubs competed for th ...

for the

Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs The Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs are an Australian professional rugby league club based in Belmore, a suburb in the Canterbury-Bankstown region of Sydney. They compete in the NRL Telstra Premiership, as well as competitions facilitated by ...

. Davies played mostly as a for the Canterbury side who were struggling to make the Semi-finals. He made an impact with the 'Dogs, scoring 100 points in his 14 games for the club (7 tries, 36 goals), including a personal haul of 18 points (2 tries, 5 goals) in the last round of the season against

Cronulla Cronulla is a suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Boasting numerous surf beaches and swimming spots, the suburb attracts both tourists and Greater Sydney residents. Cronulla is 26 kilometres south of the Sydney central ...

at Canterbury's home ground,

Belmore Sports Ground Belmore Sports Ground, formerly known as Belmore Oval, is a multi-purpose stadium in Belmore, New South Wales, Australia. The park covers and from 1951 has contained the Belmore Bowling Recreation Club green. It is close to Belmore railway ...

. Needing a win to force a 5th place playoff with Western Suburbs, Canterbury-Bankstown got off to a slow start and Cronulla took a 16–0 half time lead. Canterbury scored 26 unanswered points in the second half to win 26–16. In the playoff with Wests, Davies first stint in Australia came to an end with Wests winning 19–14.

Widnes

Davies played , and scored a try, 3 conversions, and a drop goal in

24–0 victory over

Leeds Leeds is a city in West Yorkshire, England. It is the largest settlement in Yorkshire and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds Metropolitan Borough, which is the second most populous district in the United Kingdom. It is built aro ...

in the 1991–92 Regal Trophy Final during the 1991–92 season at

on Saturday 11 January 1992.

Warrington

After

got into financial difficulties, in 1993 he transferred to their local rivals

Warrington Warrington () is an industrial town in the Borough of Warrington, borough of the same name in Cheshire, England. The town sits on the banks of the River Mersey and was Historic counties of England, historically part of Lancashire. It is east o ...

. He was named player of the 1993–94 season, winning the RFL's

Man of Steel Award The Steve Prescott Man of Steel Awards is an end-of-season awards dinner for the Super League rugby league competition. The event's name is taken from the main award presented, the Man of Steel award for the rugby league footballer of the year. I ...

. During the

1994–95 Rugby Football League season The 1994–95 Rugby Football League season was the 100th ever season of professional rugby league football in Britain. Sixteen teams competed from August 1994 until May 1995 for a number of titles, primarily the Stones Bitter Championship. Sea ...

Davies played , and scored a conversion in

's 10–40 defeat by

in the 1994–95 League Cup Final at Alfred McAlpine Stadium,

Huddersfield Huddersfield is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees in West Yorkshire, England. It is the administrative centre and largest settlement in the Kirklees district. The town is in the foothills of the Pennines. The River Holme's confl ...

on Saturday 28 January 1995.

North Queensland Cowboys

Davies again played in Australia when he signed with the newly-formed

North Queensland Cowboys The North Queensland Cowboys is an Australian professional rugby league football club based in Townsville, the largest city in North Queensland. They compete in Australia's premier rugby league competition, the National Rugby League (NRL). Sinc ...

in 1995. He was unable to get to Australia until midway through the 1995 Winfield Cup Premiership. He scored a full field try against the

Newcastle Knights The Newcastle Knights are an Australian professional rugby league team based in Newcastle, New South Wales that competes in the National Rugby League (NRL) premiership. Playing in red and blue, the Knights joined the top-tier competition in New ...

Newcastle Newcastle usually refers to: *Newcastle upon Tyne, a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England, United Kingdom *Newcastle-under-Lyme, a town in Staffordshire, England, United Kingdom *Newcastle, New South Wales, a metropolitan area ...

. Davies finished the season as the club's top scorer with 43 points.

International

Davies captained

in the 30–12 win over

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

on 16 Feb 1992 in Perpignan. During his time in rugby league he represented both Great Britain and

, scoring a solo try in Great Britain's last victory over the

Kangaroos Kangaroos are marsupials from the family Macropodidae (macropods, meaning "large foot"). In common use, the term is used to describe the largest species from this family, the red kangaroo, as well as the antilopine kangaroo, eastern grey ...

at the old Wembley in 1994 where he sprinted 50 metres to score in the corner out-pacing Australian

Brett Mullins Brett Mullins (born 21 January 1972) is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1990s, and early 2000s. A New South Wales State of Origin and Australian international representative back, he played his club ...

. Although he left the field with a dislocated shoulder during the second half, his efforts in both attack and defence (which saw him pull off two try-saving tackles) saw him named as man of the match. The shoulder injury kept him out of the rest of

The Ashes The Ashes is a Test cricket series played biennially between England and Australia. The term originated in a satirical obituary published in a British newspaper, '' The Sporting Times'', immediately after Australia's 1882 victory at The Oval, ...

series Series may refer to: People with the name * Caroline Series (born 1951), English mathematician, daughter of George Series * George Series (1920–1995), English physicist Arts, entertainment, and media Music * Series, the ordered sets used i ...

(eventually won 2-1 by Australia) as well as prevented him from playing for Wales in a friendly against the Kangaroos in Cardiff. With the Rugby Football League splitting the Great Britain team into individual nations (Wales, England,

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

and

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

) from 1995, the test at Wembley was the last time Davies represented Great Britain in rugby league. Davies' last rugby league match was as captain of Wales against England in the 1995 World Cup Semi-final at

Old Trafford Old Trafford () is a football stadium in Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, England, and is the home of Manchester United. With a capacity of 74,197, it is the largest club football stadium (and second-largest football stadium overall after W ...

, which Wales lost 25–10. Playing as a , Davies kicked 3 goals for Wales taking his total score for Wales to 21 points (10 goals, 1 field goal), all scored in the 1995 World Cup.

Return to rugby union

After the birth of daughter Geena in 1995, Davies' wife Karen was diagnosed with cancer. In need of family support, and as rugby union had turned professional, Davies went back to South Wales and signed to play for

Cardiff RFC Cardiff Rugby Football Club () is a rugby union club based in Cardiff, the capital city of Wales. The club was founded in 1876Parry-Jones (1989), pg 59 and played their first few matches at Sophia Gardens, shortly after which relocating to Ca ...

. On a guest appearance on ''

A Question of Sport ''A Question of Sport'' (known as ''Question of Sport'' from 2021 until 2023) is a British television sports quiz show produced and broadcast by the BBC. It was the "world's longest running TV sports quiz". Following a pilot episode in December ...

'' in 1995 he was asked what the biggest change was after returning to rugby union. Davies replied: "It's the first time I've been cold for seven years. I was never cold playing rugby league."

After rugby

Since retiring from rugby, Davies has worked in the media as a commentator and pundit in both codes, mainly for the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

in both the English and Welsh languages. He is known for his spirited support of Wales during commentary and regularly faces accusations of bias from viewers. Since 2004 Davies has hosted his own rugby themed chatshow, '' Jonathan'', on

S4C S4C (, ''Sianel Pedwar Cymru'', meaning ''Channel Four Wales'') is a Welsh language free-to-air public broadcast television channel. Launched on 1 November 1982, it was the first television channel to be aimed specifically at a Welsh-speakin ...

, usually before Welsh international matches. Davies was also the President of

Super League Super League (also known as the Betfred Super League for sponsorship reasons, and legally Super League Europe Ltd.) is a professional rugby league competition, and the highest level of the British rugby league system, which consists of twelve t ...

side

Crusaders The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and at times directed by the Papacy during the Middle Ages. The most prominent of these were the campaigns to the Holy Land aimed at reclaiming Jerusalem and its surrounding ...

, until 2009, when he was replaced by David Watkins. As of 2024, Davies is the brand ambassador for energy efficiency company, Consumer Energy Solutions, based in Swansea. He is a supporter of the

Wooden Spoon A wooden spoon is a Kitchen utensil, utensil commonly used in food preparation. In addition to its culinary uses, wooden spoons also feature in folk art and culture. History The word ''spoon'' derives from an ancient word meaning a chip of woo ...

charity.

Recognition

Davies was appointed a

Member of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

(MBE) in the 1995 New Year Honours for services to rugby league football.United Kingdom list: In the 2015 Birthday Honours, he was promoted to Officer of the same order (OBE), "for voluntary and charitable services to People with Cancer," in recognition of his work as President of Cardiff's

Velindre Cancer Centre The Velindre Cancer Centre () is a specialist facility offering inpatient and outpatient care for cancer patients in Whitchurch, Cardiff, Wales. The site is currently managed and owned by the Velindre University NHS Trust, and was previously o ...

.United Kingdom:

Playing records

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Davies, Jonathan 1962 births Living people 1987 Rugby World Cup players 20th-century Welsh sportsmen BBC sports presenters and reporters British rugby league administrators Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs players Cardiff RFC players Crawshays RFC players Dual-code rugby internationals Great Britain national rugby league team captains Great Britain national rugby league team players Llanelli RFC players Neath RFC players North Queensland Cowboys players Officers of the Order of the British Empire Rugby league centres Rugby league five-eighths Rugby league fullbacks Rugby league players from Carmarthenshire Rugby league wingers Rugby union fly-halves Rugby union players from Carmarthenshire Wales international rugby union players Wales national rugby league team captains Wales national rugby league team players Wales rugby union captains Warrington Wolves players Welsh rugby league commentators Welsh rugby league players Welsh rugby union commentators Welsh rugby union players Welsh television presenters Welsh-language television presenters Widnes Vikings players

Biography

Rugby union

Rugby league

Widnes

Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs

Widnes

Warrington

North Queensland Cowboys

International

Return to rugby union

After rugby

Recognition

Playing records

References

Further reading

External links