Phil DAVIES

Phil Davies played his club rugby for Llanelli and enjoyed a distinguished 46 cap career for Wales 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 and Bob Norster, 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 that saw Davies wind up on the wrong end of lock Wade Dooley's fist. Phil's first international appearance came in a 24-15 victory over England in Cardiff, 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. Phil's next appearance came in a 40-3 victory against Fiji at the Arms Park, and he marked the occasion by scoring two of his side's seven tries. The following year Phil played in seven tests in total, but was denied a possible Triple Crown when his side were beaten 21-18 by England in the first match of the campaign. Wales recovered to beat Scotland and Ireland before losing to France. Phil and his teammates then embarked on a short tour of the southern hemisphere as part of the side's preparation for 1987 World Cup and included victories over Fiji, Tonga and Western Samoa. 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 found themselves on the receiving end of opposition fists, not for the last time in Phil's case. (Jon Collins)

Following a narrow defeat by France in the opening test of the 1987 campaign, Wales were involved in one of rugby's most violent tests in a game against England in Cardiff. The game was surrounded by the kind of ill feeling that had characterised the 1980 clash at Twickenham, and England's forwards, spurred on by a blood curdling team talk by captain Richard Hill, literally went in for the jugular. Centre Jamie Salmon would later recall "Players like Wade Dooley didn't take too much to get them going and the rest of the forwards were fired up like never before. We went out there and at the first line-out, all hell broke loose. The whole pack was going ballistic. After that, it was never going to be a pleasant encounter." Following those early, ugly exchanges, the forwards squared up in again in the sixth minute and Wade Dooley punched Phil so hard that he smashed his cheekbone. Amazingly, Dooley stayed on the field, whilst Davies headed for the infirmary, his place taken by Richie Collins (appropriately of the South Wales Police!). Whatever the rights and wrongs of what went on in that game, in one sense justice was done as Wales won the match 19-12 and Dooley, Gareth Chilcott and Graham Dawe were all suspended.

Phil recovered to play in Wales final game of the Five Nations, a 15-11 defeat by Ireland, and then also participated in his country's World Cup campaign in Australia. Wales firstly avenged their Five Nations defeat by Ireland in the pool stages and then also beat old foes England in the quarters. However, the Celt's injury ridden side were then outclassed by New Zealand who beat them 49-6 in the semi-finals which saw an eight to one try count against. Due to injury, Phil missed Wales memorable victory in the third place off against Australia in Rotorua, a match that his side won by 22-21. The following season Phil missed out on Wales first Triple Crown since 1978, but did play in matches against Western Samoa and Romania. The 1989 season saw Davies as an ever present in the Five Nations but a poor campaign saw the Welsh return just one victory, albeit a 12-9 success against England to extend their remarkable winning run at the Arms Park against the men in white. (Jon Collins)

Under new coach Ron Waldron, Wales began the 1990 campaign with a 29-19 defeat by France which saw Phil's fellow forward Kevin Moseley become the third Welshman behind Paul Ringer and Geoff Wheel to head for an early bath. In order to accommodate the departure of the lock, Davies was then moved into the second row to partner new cap Andy Allen of Newbridge. After that loss, Wales were then hammered 34-6 by a rampant England side at Twickenham, and one of the few bright spots was a superb second half try by Phil that saw him bulldoze his way over the line. Wales then came desperately close to derailing Scotland's Grand Slam hopes before going down 13-9, despite a fine try by Arthur Emyr. Davies then missed out on the so called "Wooden Spoon Decider" against Ireland. Wales eventually lost that one as well, meaning that the 1990 side were the first in history to lose all four Championship matches, an achievement that in recent times had been set aside for England.

The 1991 season was not much better with Wales only managing a single point in the Five Nations via a 21-21 draw with Ireland, though some rated this as Phil's best performance in a red shirt. Things went from bad to worse in the summer as Wales lost to Queensland, New South Wales and Australia down under before losing to the Aussies again in the World Cup. Phil continued to turn out for Wales for another four years, and was rewarded with his first and only Championship victory in 1994. That year he also equalled 70s legend Graham Price's record of 41 caps when he came on as a replacement in a match with Fiji, and then became Wales most capped forward when he appeared against Western Samoa. Phil won his last cap for Wales the following year in a 16-12 defeat by Ireland (the photo above shows him during the national anthem 18th. March 1995), a match that sealed another Wooden Spoon and also saw the departure of his namesake, coach Alan Davies. (Jon Collins)