He suffered a fall at Creigiau Golf Club last week, injuring his arm, and died in hospital on 27 September. He is survived by his wife, Enid, daughter Kate and grandchildren.
Born in Weston-super-Mare, and raised in Leeds until he was 11, Davies followed his father, Idwal, into both the Llanelli and Wales teams. His rugby education began at Llanelli Grammar School and won six caps for the Wales Secondary Schools against Yorkshire, England and France in both 1959 and 1960.
He played alongside D Ken Jones, the future Wales and British & Irish Lions star, in both seasons and also lined-up with future internationals Dennis Hughes and Derek Morgan. He then moved on to Swansea University having made his debut for Llanelli on Christmas Day, 1959 in a 9-8 win over the UAU.
In tandem with fellow schoolboy international Ken Jones he helped the Scarlets win the Welsh Sevens title of the first time at the end of the season. He then moved to Cardiff for the 1960-61 season after rejecting the Llanelli committee offer to play at centre.
He featured in 26 games at outside half and centre for the Arms Park club before returning to Stradey Park three games into the 1961-62 campaign, where he partnered Dennis Thomas at half-back, following Ken Jones’ switch to the centre.
The first of his three caps came in the ‘smallpox’ match against Ireland that had been held over from March to November. The game ended in a 3-3 draw in Dublin and the next month he featured in the Wales U23 team that took on the touring Canadians at the Arms Park.
He held onto his place in the Wales midfield for the opening two games in the 1963 Five Nations Championship. His home debut didn’t go well, as England won 13-6 on a frozen Arms Park pitch, but he tasted victory at Murrayfield in the infamous game of 111 line-outs against the Scots.
A drop goal and a penalty won it for Wales, 6-0, but Davies only touched the ball twice and found himself being dropped. The selectors kept faith with 13 of the victorious team in the Scottish capital, while Brian Price missed the game through injury, but return for the final game against the French.
In playing for Wales, Davies became the seventh son to follow his father into the national side. There have been nine others since.
Idwal Davies was born in Llanelli in 1915 and educated at Llanelli County School and Trinity College, Carmarthen. He played for Hendy, Llangennech and Pontarddulais before graduating to Swansea and London Welsh.
He made his Wales debut in a 3-0 defeat to England at Twickenham on 21 January, 1939, and then signed for Leeds rugby league club before the month was out for £700. He made only fleeting appearances for his new club because of his war duties in the RAF, but did find time to become a dual-code international by playing in a 18-8 defeat to England at Wigan in 1945.
He also featured in two rugby union Services Internationals for Wales against England and became coach at Dewsbury RLFC in 1948. A schoolteacher by profession, he then brought his family back to south Wales and became the secretary of the newly-formed Cardiff Rugby League Club in 1949.
Brian’s career also saw him play for Newbridge, Newport and Neath on the first-class circuit. He also featured for Pontyclun and Pentyrch after stepping down to community level following knee problems. His younger brother, Stuart, was also a centre who played 281 times for Swansea and captained them against the Springboks in 1969.
He became captain and coach at Pentyrch and played for them in WRU Challenge Cup games against two of his former clubs, Llanelli and Cardiff.
“When Brian arrived at Pentyrch we were a traditional one lap of the field and back into the bar club on training nights,” explained Pentrych RFC President, and former club team mate, Huw Llywelyn-Davies.
“He transformed the way we trained and played at the club and was instrumental in a dramatic cultural shift in attitude. When we went to Stradey Park to play Llanelli in the first round of the cup Brian found himself playing opposite Ray Gravell.
“By this time Brian was working as a radio pundit at BBC Wales and had commentated on a few appearances for Llanelli by Ray. In his pre-match warm-up, Phil Bennett, the Llanelli captain, wound-up Grav was reminding him that Brian had been far from complimentary about him in one of his recent commentaries.
“It never took much to fire-up Ray and that team talk led to a long, tough afternoon for both Brian and Pentyrch. We lost 53-7!
“Brian was a terrific player in his day, a wonderful clubman and a great friend. He will be sorely missed by so many of us and our thoughts and prayers are with Enid and his family.”
A lecturer in civil engineering at Cardiff University during his working career, he spent a lot of his retirement painting. In 2008, he produced a book, “Portraits”, which featured his work alongside biographies of his subjects.
Wales Cap No 673 (his father was No 518), David Brian Davies was born in Weston-super-Mare on 7 July, 1941. He died on 27 September, 2020. The Welsh Rugby Union offers sincere condolences to his family and friends.
