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The moment Nigel Owens knew Jonathan Davies would be 'special'

The now-retired Jonathan Davies in Wales action in 2021 (Photo by Ian Cook/CameraSport via Getty Images)

Retired referee Nigel Owens has paid tribute to Jonathan Davies, the Wales and British and Irish Lions midfielder who announced his retirement as a player earlier this week at the age of 36. The former centre spent 15 seasons with the Scarlets first team and another two at Clermont before deciding to finish up.

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Writing in his weekly walesonline.co.uk column, Owens has now recalled the moment he knew a teenage Davies would be a special player. “At the peak of his powers, he was unstoppable and he will rightly be remembered as one of the greatest Welsh players of his generation,” he suggested.

“Of course, it’s easy to say it now, but there was something about him that made me realise early on that he would go on to be a star. In the mid-2000s, it was part of my role as a professional referee to visit each region and offer my services and expertise if they requested I do so, so I used to go in to see Phil Davies and the Scarlets every Tuesday.

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“I would go through the penalties they conceded the week before, how they could do better in their next game and discuss what referees would be focused on, it was just things like that, while I would also referee their contact training session that day.

“There were some big characters in that Scarlets squad, but amongst them all was a baby-faced young man called, as I was soon told, Jonathan Davies.

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A post shared by Jonathan Davies (@jonfoxdavies)

“Of course, say that name to anyone in Welsh rugby at that time and they would think only of the all-time great that is ‘Jiffy’. But you could see just from the occasional training session that this youngster had a special talent himself.

“He was very physical for a kid that was 18 years of age. He was very, very strong and he stood out a bit amongst the rest. It was clear he was very special. It was no surprise to me that he went on to hit the heights that he did.

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“He was a crucial part of the Scarlets’ success over the years, especially when they won the PRO12 title in 2017, while he also lit up the international stage for Wales and the Lions.

“In fact, that Lions series in 2017 was when he was at the absolute peak of his powers. He was unstoppable, truly on top of the world and a nightmare for the opposition to deal with.

“The word ‘legend’ is thrown around too much these days, particularly when a player retires, but in this case it really is justified. ‘Fox’ is truly one of the all-time Welsh greats and I hope that he will be remembered and celebrated for decades to come, just as we do with the icons of the 1970s.”

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J
JW 1 hour ago
All Blacks player ratings vs Ireland | Autumn Nations Series

Nah, if you see some picture of a way to blame Dmac rather than the whole team who were slacking and just getting beat by an Argentina team that was up for it then you've got unconscious bias I'm afraid.


The coaching staff (and the team as they had done throughout Fosters era) did just not get them in the right frame of mind. They slackened off after two intense English tests and were slow to build back up into test match intensity after the San Diego run around. You can view that Wellington loss as akin to what went on in Chicago in 2016, it was just delayed a couple of weeks in this instance.


Good reminder of what game management is, unfortunately it doesn't cover all the bases and is missing pivotal parts of lethality.


I think you're misunderstanding the argument, this is about Dmac, not the team, and about his idea of game management, not his application. In none of the games this year, including this weekends one, has he done relentless execution of the basics. His conservative game was neither shrewd or accurate.


The difference here is perspective. You see a win and you want to apply credit, just as you saw a lose and want to apply blame. Dmac's game management in both circumstances was very similar, just in this game I felt that pressure to concentrate on it caused him a few more errors in that application for no real gain in that area, and a much more ineffective attack stop the team from making it a very comfortable game.


The other difference is you a way overplaying Irelands performance imo. They were pathetic. Even in the start of the 2nd when they were trying to get points with the card it felt comfortable they weren't going to have what it takes even if they fixed their error rate. That was the first Bled test where Dmac nearly singlehandedly took an unbeatable 50 lead, a great example of good game management that again just didn't come off. Those tests were not 12 tests ago. Twelve tests ago he was running England around like he'd been in the jersey his whole career. We didn't break any record, the streak is a figment of Irelands imagination to desperately show how good they are to the world. You've been caught hook line and sinker in all these topics sadly.

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