Jonathan Davies is 60. Pic: Getty Images.

Jiffy At 60 . . . Thankful, Grateful And Full Of Enough Energy To “Kick The Arse Out Of Life”

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By Rob Carbon

Jonathan Davies qualifies for his bus pass today, but you’re more likely to find the still sprightly 60-year-old sporting icon on a bike than on public transport.

The man who enthralled a generation of rugby union lovers in Wales, before heading ‘North’ to rugby league and capturing even more hearts and minds with his mesmerizing speed and side-stepping ability, splits his time between family life, fulfilling his role as President of Velindre Fundraising and extending his 25-year-long commentary career at the BBC.

In his charity role he has been a major catalyst in helping to raise £40m for Velindre. This year alone he has led three charity bike rides, the last of which in America raised £1m.

Beating cancer is a cause that is very much close to home for ‘Jiffy’. He lost his Dad to the disease when he was only 14 and then lost his first wife, Karen, 25 years ago when she was only 34.

“It was a tough stage of my life. I could have felt sorry for myself and stayed in bed all day, but I had responsibilities. I had to be disciplined for my kids and I knew I had to meet my commitments,” said Davies.

“When I finished playing, I had a seven-year-old, a three-year-old and a one-year-old and a wife dying of cancer. So, when I hear players today saying how hard it is when they finish it makes me wonder.

“These days, I’m happy, my wife Jay is fantastic and I’m enjoying my life. I’m still training hard, I travel a lot and I feel that if I’m healthy physically, then I’m healthy mentally.

 

“I love my food, I like a drink and I enjoy socialising, but there is a balance in life. Last Christmas we went to Dubai and I tested positive for COVID. On 19 December I left my wife and her daughter at the airport and I had to spend 11 days in an eighth-floor apartment on my own.

“It was a serious amount of thinking time and I suddenly realised that everything could be taken away from me. Waking up on Christmas Day with my wife being upset, as well as my mother on the phone, was difficult.

“I came out the day before New Year’s Eve and I decided that 60-70 is going to be the decade I enjoy fruits of my labour. I’m going to kick the arse out of it!

“If I get to 70, then I’ll see how I feel and give it another go for the next decade. I may start to slow down a bit at 70, but at the moment I feel OK and I’m in a very happy place.”

Today will bring down the curtain on almost a month-long celebration of his birthday. There have been special TV shows, newspaper articles and more than a few headaches, all commensurate with his fame.

The party bandwagon has meandered from his home in Swansea to Majorca, on to Paris, into the Welsh capital and even took a detour to Leigh last week where he was commentating on the rugby league World Cup. The family celebrations are likely to be a little calmer than his previous excursions, but there are no signs of him slowing up or calming down.

Age, as they say, is just a number, but in the case ‘Jiffy’ you can barely notice any difference these days in shape, size or fitness from when he hung up his boots 25 years ago.

He readily admits “rugby has given me everything”, but he has given back in equal measure. His playing career saw him captain Wales in both codes and score one of the greatest tries by a Welshman against New Zealand. Amid the humiliation of two 50-point defeats to the All Blacks on tour in 1988, his 70 metre try shone like a beacon of Welsh talent and defiance.

 

Fast forward to Wembley Stadium six years later and he was turning on the style and the gas in a Great Britain rugby league shirt by scoring an amazing corner try against Australia. Two of the greatest tries ever scored by a Welsh rugby player, but only a fraction of the magical moments he served up throughout his stellar career.

As he looks back, there are no regrets, but maybe one stand-out ‘what if?’. What if he hadn’t turned his back on union and gone ‘North’ in the wake of captaining Wales to a grim home defeat to Romania?

“When I came back from New Zealand in 1988, I quickly saw things weren’t going to change. The WRU had sacked the coaches and weren’t going to change their attitude on facilities and helping the players with some sponsorship, as they were doing in New Zealand at the time,” claims Davies.

“If the players who went to rugby league at that time had stayed, we could have made a big impact at the 1991 World Cup. England went to the final and I think we were a better side than them – it could have been us instead of them.

“I can remember being on the Widnes team bus with Paul Moriarty and John Devereux on the Sunday that Wales lost to Samoa in that tournament. We were listening to the end of the game as we pulled into the Wheldon Road ground and were so sad they lost.

“Maybe felt a little bit of guilt. I just said to them ‘let’s get out there and show them what they are missing’. We all had that toughness about us which wasn’t in the Welsh game at the time.”

These days Davies still sees a soft underbelly in the regional professional game in Wales and is still dreaming of watching a Welsh side beat New Zealand for the first time since 1953. When the two teams clash at Principality Stadium on 5 November, the All Blacks will be seeking a 33rd win in a row.

 

“I was at Stradey Park with my Dad when Llanelli beat New Zealand in 1972 and we also went to the 1978 international game in Cardiff, when Brian McKechnie kicked the winning penalty after Andy Haden fell out of the line-out,” recalled Davies.

“That was a real chance to beat them, as was the 2011 World Cup. If Sam Warburton hadn’t been given a red card in the semi-final against France, I think we could have won the World Cup.”We would have beaten France if he’s got a yellow and I’m convinced we could have gone on to beat New Zealand, who had lost Dan Carter and were held together by Richie McCaw.

“It comes down to belief when you play against teams like the All Blacks. I always believed I was better than my opposite number.

“I played against some great sides and great players, and you can’t get overawed by them. If we had stayed together in 1988, and the WRU had listened to us and supported us, things could have been different.

“Instead, we had to wait until Graham Henry came in as coach in 1998, when the WRU gave him everything he wanted. Money is everything in Welsh rugby, maybe because we don’t have enough of it, but I don’t see enough forward thinking.

“I’ve got no problem with the best players earning what they are getting because it’s hard to get to the top, and even harder to stay there. But the problem is there are some bang average players picking up £100-200k and taking the p*** with their performances.”

 

He is still having his say on both codes of rugby as a cherished pundit for the BBC, and he also has his own Welsh language TV show on S4C. He is still at the heart of the rugby community and cherishes his involvement in the game.

“Rugby is a great community and is a sport that is a pleasure to be involved in. My friendships extend all over the world and I’ve even become friendly with people I neither played with or against – Brian O’Driscoll, Stuart Hogg, Victor Matfield, Keith Wood, Gareth Edwards and Bill Beaumont,” he added.

“My Dad once told me that while it was nice to be important, the most important thing was to be nice. It’s a motto I ‘ve tried to live by.”

He’s done that and much, much more. What a player, what a career and what an incredible life he has lived since he last kicked a ball in anger on 7 May, 1997.

He was already a national icon from his sporting days, but he has since turned into a national treasure in Wales. Happy Birthday ‘Jiff’!

 

 

JONATHAN DAVIES . . . DID YOU KNOW?

 

He only ever received three stitches during his playing career – a clash of heads with Whitehaven’s Andy Wilson.

 

He gave his old rugby club, Trimsaran, a £1,000 TV, which was payment from a client for an appearance in London.

 

When he had his medical at Widnes, they told him he had one leg longer than the other, curvature of his spine and that he was slightly asthmatic. They still signed him and he scored a club record 342 points for them in his second season.

 

His youngest daughter, Molly, is studying to be a journalist at Cardiff University. Son, Scott, is a TV editor, Grace works in fashion at Stitch Fix and Geena is a teacher. 

 

His step-daughter, Deia, is at school in Swansea, where her headmaster, Jeff Bird, was the Maesteg outside half who once broke Jonathan’s nose in a game.

 

Former Worcester Warriors owner Cecil Duckworth asked him to become director of rugby at the English Premiership club when he retired.

 

Two of the greatest loves in his life are going to Glastonbury and playing golf.

 

When he switched from Neath to Llanelli, and the two teams met in the 1988 WRU Challenge Cup final, he received a card before the game signed by his former teammates which simply said ‘RIP Jonathan’.

 

Among the 12 Patrons he has encouraged to support him with his fundraising activities at Velindre are Sam Warburton, Gareth Bale and Geraint Thomas.

 

He still considers himself to be one of the ‘Garden Suburbs’ boys from his home village of Trimsaran.

 

 

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