One of the most influential and important coaches in the national game for almost three decades, he nurtured dozens of Welsh internationals and British & Irish Lions, set the standards for thousands of schoolteachers and planted the coaching seed into the minds of hundreds more.
As the news of his death was announced, former students around the world began to recall the days when ‘Mr Davies’, affectionately known as ‘Nutty’, although never to his face, taught them.
There was a Zoom conference called ‘Remembering Leighton Davies’ organised from Qatar by Rhodri Williams, the former Cardiff, Brive and Wales A lock Tony Rees spent hours on the phone with former colleagues in his home in Brisbane and many others recalled the standards he set and the influence he had on them.
The former Wales captain and Grand Slam coach Clive Rowlands toured South Africa with Davies on the Welsh Secondary Schools tour in 1956. He then played with him at what was initially Cardiff Training College and in the RAF.
“Leighton was a very good player, a hugely influential coach and a top rugby man. In the Seventies, the work he did at with his students at Cyncoed, and that of John Elgar Williams with the Welsh Schools, was massively important,” said Rowlands.
“I learned a lot from him and used to hate playing against him. He was a good friend, but I took a couple of good clouts off him.
“On the ‘Dragons’ tour in 1956 I got to play instead of him in the first game against Eastern Province. I wasn’t due to play, but somehow on the bus going to the game Leighton managed to twist his ankle.
“I was forced to play in the back row in his place – wearing his boots! It was an incredible trip and the week after we returned home I went into the RAF with Leighton and Alan Rees to do my National Service.
“Leighton then went on to St Luke’s College, Exeter, before coming back to Cardiff TC to take his teaching Diploma. I was captain at the time and he played in the game in which we beat St Luke’s, which was an incredibly important victory.
“After that more Welsh boys opted to come to Cardiff rather than go to Exeter. When he became an assistant lecturer he helped to coach the rugby team with Roy Bish before taking over as the head coach.
“He was the fittest guy I ever met and he became an outstanding coach. His impact on the game in Wales can never be underestimated.”
Davies was a lecturer when the future Olympic gold medalist, Lynn Davies, went to Cardiff TC. They then went on to lecture together for seven years before Lynn went to Canada to become head of their athletics programme.
“I first met Leighton when I was still at school and he came on a teaching practice to Ogmore Grammar School. Then I bumped into him again when I went to College, by which time he was lecturing there,” said Lynn.
“He was part of a great team in the PE department at the time. There was a slightly military atmosphere in their approach, but they set high standards and got some great results.
“I know that leading up to the Tokyo Olympics in 1964 I had never been so fit in my life. That was because lecturers like Leighton pushed us to make the most of ourselves.
“He was a very good coach, an excellent gymnastics teacher and an incredibly competitive person. When we were lecturing we used to train together in the gym and he hated the fact I could lift more than him on the power clean.”
Born in Bridgend in 1937, Davies learned his rugby at Garw Grammar School and won three caps for the Welsh Secondary Schools in 1956 before heading to South Africa on tour. He played in the RAF, with his home town club of Bridgend and then at St Luke’s.
He played for the Devon throughout their 1959-60 County Championship campaign before returning to Wales and playing for Cardiff TC. He captained Bridgend to the unofficial Western Mail Championship in the 1965/66 season and played more than 300 times for the Brewery Field club.
He also played for the Combined Bridgend & Maesteg XV against Fiji in 1964 and went on to captain Maesteg in the 1970/71 season.
To give an example of the talent that was nurtured by Davies during his time at Cyncoed you can pick a team that contains nine British Lions, four Welsh captains and a National Coach. On the bench there is another British Lion and four more capped players.
Cardiff TC / College of Education XV: Clive Griffiths; John Bevan, John Devereux, Roy Bergiers,
JJ Williams; David Richards, Gareth Edwards; Colin Smart, Jon Humphreys, John Lloyd, Allan Martin, Tony Copsey, David Bryant, Stuart Lane, Gareth Williams
Reps: Huw Bevan, John Rawlins, John Jeffrey, Stuart Davies, Brynmor Williams, Geraint John, Les Keen
The current director of community rugby at the Welsh Rugby Union, Geraint John, was another player who learned so much under the expert tutelage of Davies at Cyncoed. He described him as “an unsung hero” of the game in Wales and a man for whom so many had massive respect.
“Each and every one of the players who went to Cyncoed will have their own ‘Nutty’ story. He had a massive influence on so many of us and always challenged us to strive to be better.
“He instilled huge confidence in us and always believed we could rise to any challenge and win any game. He set high standards and we respected him for that.
“Manners were important to him, as was dress code and turning up for training in clean kit. I remember bumping into him when I returned to Wales from my coaching stint in Canada and addressing him as ‘Mr Davies’.
“This was years after I had left College and he insisted that it was now time to call him ‘Leighton’. That was indicative of the respect I still had for him and how I saw him.
“He always encouraged us to use out fitness and to play a fast, passing game. In one match he threatened to make me wear daps in the second half because he felt I was kicking the ball away too much and that it might hurt my feet if I was wearing them.
“He always had time for you, was always supportive and encouraging, yet never gave you an easy ride. The standards he set us all were life changing.”
He coached the Welsh Colleges and Welsh Students, took the Crawshay’s to South Africa and was hugely influential with the Welsh Academicals as both coach and team manager, he also coached the Wales B team in Italy.
“Leighton will forever be remembered as a legendary figure from his days at Cyncoed,” said the former Dean of Sport at Cardiff Met University, Dave Cobner. “He taught me and lectured with me and I learned so much from him.
“He always gave tough messages, and often made quick judgements about players, but always gave them the chance of prove themselves. He had an ability to bring out the best in his players, was a good reader of people and a tremendous character.
“He built up an incredible fixture list that contained almost every first-class club in Wales during his time in charge, but hated it when we were forced to go into the league system.”
The Scrum V rugby presenter and commentator, Phil Steele, was another former Cyncoed student who was quick to respond to the sad news of the death of his former coach.
“Leighton made a huge contribution to Welsh Rugby in his role as lecturer and rugby coach. He was a great character, too, with his trademark sardonic wit, which most of us students were on the receiving end of at some time,” said Steele.
Steele’s trademark after-dinner speeches invariably include a reference to his College rugby days, including his conversation with Davies after he had been dropped from outside half for the 1st XV to full back in the 3rd XV.
“Mr Davies, why have I been dropped from the first to the third XV?,” he asked. The answer, quick as a flash, was self-explanatory: “Because we haven’t got a 4th XV, Phil.”
The former Bridgend captain, Meredydd James, was another player who learned from Davies during his time at Cyncoed and remembers the role that he played in his personal and rugby development.
“Leighton was a huge man in my rugby experience. He set very high physical standards and never believed in lost causes,” said James.
“He felt that anything was achievable physically and was fearless in his approach as a player on the field. He did his best to pass those qualities onto his players and was held in the highest regards.
“Whenever he turned up for the old player reunions at Bridgend there was always a queue of people who wanted to shake his hand and talk to him. He was a man who deserved and demanded the utmost respect.”
Rugby was always his first love, although he was an excellent gymnast and a competent player of many racket sports. His squash battles with his fellow lecturer Syd Aaron were legendary and he was an accomplished tennis player who also took up golf after retirement.
But rugby was always his central theme, as the former Llanelli and Wales lock Tony Copsey recalled. The Romford rogue was questioned by ‘Mr Davies’ when he turned up for his interview before joining what by then had become South Glamorgan Institute of Higher Education.
“It was an hour long interview and we spent 55 minutes talking about rugby and then five minutes about whether or not I was appropriate to be on the course. I’d only played pub rugby before I went to College and I started off in the 3rd XV,” said Copsey.
“Leighton eventually promoted me to the 1st XV and my first game was against Llanelli at Stradey Park. That was my first big break because Gareth Jenkins spotted something in me and I ended up playing for the Scarlets.
“So many players got their big break under Leighton at College and so many of us owe him a huge debt of gratitude. His was a school of hard knocks style of coaching and management, not particularly modern these days, but for most of us it was exactly what we needed.”
