For over a decade, Wales have been fortunate to possess a player like Jonathan Davies.
The perfect blend of power and agility, he has played a vital role in what has been a golden generation in the fabled red jersey and now he joins a pantheon of legends.
This weekend, if and when he comes on against Scotland, Davies will join his skipper Dan Biggar in playing his 100th Test match. The blockbusting centre's century tally will be made up of 94 Wales caps combined with six Test appearances for the Lions.
READ MORE: Dan Biggar's amazing 100 cap journey, as told by the coaches who know him best
Only the greats get there and when Davies crosses that threshold, nobody can take it away from him.
Things have not always been easy, it's fair to say.
It was clear from a young age that Davies had the raw materials to be a top player, but he had to be moulded into the world class operator he became.
Then there were the injuries that led to him missing major campaigns, none more frustrating than before the 2015 Rugby World Cup.
However, his staying power at the top of the game has been something to behold.
WalesOnline caught up with Davies' former Wales boss Warren Gatland, plus assistants Rob Howley and Shaun Edwards, to gain fascinating insight into what has helped make him tick.
We also sought insight from Davies’ ex-Wales under-20s boss Patrick Horgan, Phil Davies, who handed him his first professional deal at the Scarlets, and his brother, James.
A teen destined for the top
It was obvious that the young centre from Bancyfelin was going to make it.
Physically, he was gifted and he possessed a size and a power that made a mockery of his age. He was in his formative years but, in stature, Davies was already formed.
The pace was there, the fend off was there. The sky was the limit.
That is why then-Scarlets boss Phil Davies deemed the academy lad worthy of a professional contract at the age of 18.
“He just ticked the boxes,” recalls Davies. “He had a good mental attitude, good physical attributes with lots of potential to grow.
“He understood the game, too. He was an old head on young shoulders.
“I remember watching him in a game against Northampton thinking ‘flippin heck, he doesn’t look out of place’. He looked accomplished.
“You were excited by what was to come and the rest was history.”
Shortly after, Davies was part of the Wales under-20s squad of 2008, playing alongside the likes of Leigh Halfpenny, Dan Biggar, Rhys Webb and Sam Warburton at the Junior World Cup.
“Physically, he was incredible, really,” said Patrick Horgan, coach to the team at the time.
“He was beating some of the senior players when it came to strength and power at the age of 18 or 19.
“It was pretty obvious that he was going to go a long way. Within a year of the Junior World Cup [2008], he was getting a senior cap.
“I remember speaking to a reporter at the time saying that maybe five of that squad would be capped in North America and that, who knows, one or two might go on the Lions tour.
“There was a regional coach at the time who said none of them were good enough to play regional rugby. I remember thinking to myself: ‘Oh my, that’s a statement!’
“It was plainly obvious they were going to go places. Physically, Jon was better than a lot of players around at that age. Mind you, Mathieu Bastareaud was up there with him!”
Rabbit in the headlights - Gatland
Talent like that doesn’t stay hidden for long. With a plethora of senior Wales players away with the Lions in 2009, Davies made his Test bow against Canada.
Senior honours came very quickly in his career and the management were excited by what they were seeing.
“He’s always had a strong physique,” says former Wales defence coach Shaun Edwards. “He looked like he’d been lifting weights from a young age, although I’m not sure whether he actually did.
“We used to joke that he’d been clean and pressing 100 kilos since he was five years old. That used to be one of the jokes in the camp.
“If you see him with his top off, he’s almost like a competition body builder. Having a good physique definitely helps.”
To suggest he came in as the finished article, though, would be a little disingenuous and to expect that would have been unfair.
The physical attributes were the foundations and Davies had a head start on most when it came to those.
But the game, particularly at Test level, is about much more than physicality, as he would have to learn.
Former Wales boss Warren Gatland recalls: “One of his first matches was against Australia and he was a bit like rabbit in the headlights because things were happening pretty quickly.
“I remember saying to him afterwards that you can’t coach experience and that he would learn from that match.”
Howley remembers a similar conversation.
“In his first Six Nations Championship, there was a game against France and he thought he’d played okay,” he said. “Myself and Neil Jenkins sat down with him to talk through it.
“It was just scanning and communication. They are two simple words but in order to do those two things you have to give yourself time.
“The problem was that Jonathan was standing a little bit too flat. So we worked on his positioning, which gave him more time and the ability to make an early decision. That brought about the decisiveness and he was then communicating that to his 10 and 12.
“The majority of the decisions will come from the outside because in his role you are the eyes of the backline. Jonathan’s communication and scanning skills needed work initially.
“But any player jumping up from regional rugby will find that you don’t have 4.5 seconds to make a decision at Test level, you have three seconds.
“The absolute key in international rugby is to be decisive, whether that’s kick, pass or run and Jonathan certainly learned that process and it made him a better player.”
Becoming a key Wales cog
It soon became evident that Davies was a key figure in what was to become a golden generation for Welsh rugby.
With just 14 caps under his belt, he went to the 2011 World Cup and excelled - the quarter-final against Ireland stands out - then he played an integral role in the 2012 Grand Slam and 2013 Championship success.
The piston hand-off and a searing outside break became a trademark, but his defence also warranted plaudits.
Edwards says that in modern rugby, the outside centre channel is the most difficult to defend. But Davies was so good at it, he was handed extra responsibility.
“For me, as defensive captain, he definitely grew into the role,” said Edwards.
“Normally your defensive captain is at 12, but he did it from 13 and did it well. He was pivotal for us in his play and his leadership.
“I would ask his opinion: ‘What do you think of what we’re doing here?’ Asking about certain situations.
“He was part of the decision-making process. Jon was the defensive captain and he was telling the other guys what to do.
“Because he was one of the players he got that buy-in."
The unstoppable centre partnership
What also developed in that period was his midfield combination with Jamie Roberts.
Over the course of their careers, the pair played together 45 times for Wales. It puts them joint-third on the all-time partnerships list, only trailing Ireland's Brian O’Driscoll/Gordon D’Arcy and the New Zealand pair of Ma’a Nonu/Conrad Smith.
Roberts gave Wales direction and Davies sprinkled a bit of subtlety over their play. At times, it was unstoppable.
Their partnership laid the foundation for Wales’ success through the first half of Gatland’s tenure as Wales boss and he recalls it fondly.
“There was a nice balance with that partnership,” said Gatland. “Jamie’s defence was pretty strong and he had a great ability to run some really great lines and get you across the gain line.
“That created a little bit more space for Jonathan out wide and he had that little bit of pace over five yards to get outside someone. Then he would force players to fall off tackles. He scored some great tries running those in-to-out plays.
“They formed a great midfield partnership. They complemented each other really well.”
Howley adds: “As a coach, you always work to your strengths and Warren Gatland brought Jamie into the centre. They were a foil for each other.
“The dexterity of Jonathan’s handling, his footwork and his outside break blended with Jamie’s angles of running allowed us to target certain elements of defences.
“They had a unique partnership.”
So how does Roberts himself remember their relationship?
“It was great to share the field with him,” he said. “He’s the sort of player that made the right call at the right time.
“We had a really good working relationship and he was a pleasure to play with.
“Away from the field, he’s quite shy, a bit more of a quiet bloke. But give him a few beers and like most west Walians he’s got an alter ego that comes out! He becomes a bit more like his brother.”
That, however, is a claim that Jonathan’s larger-than-life brother James refutes.
“There’s no-one like me,” James laughs. “Not even him, not even same blood.”
Although he conceded: “He does loosen up [after a beer] and he is a better bloke, to be fair, but he doesn’t get as bad as me. I think that’s probably a bit unfair on him if anything!”
Another special bond
James is two-and-a-half years younger than his brother but they had similar interests as kids. Both supported Man United and they loved boxing, always being sure to record Mike Tyson’s fights and Prince Naseem Hamed.
“We shared a room until he was 18 and we were close,” says James.
“We did have a few scuffles but he was a lot bigger than me even at a young age!
“We used to live in a pub next to a park and a rugby pitch and we’d go out every day to kick the ball about. It was class having a brother who had the same interests as you.
“We would spend hours just kicking balls at the goal and practising our celebration. We would hit about 50 balls and then when we scored a screamer we used to do the Paul Gascoigne celebration with the water bottle.”
James has carved out a fantastic career of his own, the highlight of which was winning the silver medal for Team GB Sevens at the Rio Olympics.
But he insists he never felt any pressure to follow in his brother’s footsteps. Although he has given Davies senior the nickname ‘Goldenballs’, which he first coined on Wales’ tour of Argentina in 2018.
He sticks by it.
“He still is! First child, see,” he insisted.
“Fox [Jonathan’s nickname] was the favourite. I will never forget our grandmother used to have a chair in her house and it used to be a shrine with a newspaper cutting of him. All he had was third in an Urdd competition, but that was on her shrine. There he was with his little medal.”
The pair are now part of the same Scarlets squad but have also represented Wales together a handful of times, including at the 2019 World Cup.
It was, of course, a special day for the family.
“For us to play together on the biggest stage was just class for us. But you could really see it in mum and dad, how special it was for them,” said James.
“It was something that we’ll never forget.”
A true Lion king
Davies has scaled some of the game’s highest peaks, touring twice with the British and Irish Lions, taking part in the series win in 2013 and draw in 2017.
The first of his tours, to Australia, saw him selected ahead of legend Brian O’Driscoll for the final, decisive Test. It was a huge talking point at the time but to this day Gatland insists it was a joint decision by the management team, who felt it was best for their chance of beating the Wallabies.
Either way, it put huge pressure on Davies and he delivered as the tourists romped to victory.
But it was in 2017 that he made his biggest mark, being voted man of the series by his peers for his imperious performances against the All Blacks.
By now, he was almost an unstoppable force. A man any team in the world would have wanted in their ranks.
“In 2017, he was absolutely world class and to say that about any player is the highest accolade you could give them,” insists Edwards.
Howley adds: “It was just his accuracy and his decisiveness. He had that self-belief and confidence in his ability to make line breaks.
“Some of it comes back to fitness. This applies to all players but when you’re fit, you’re ready for those moments and Jonathan Davies was ready for that moment.
“He probably had a bit of a quiet Six Nations in 2017 but we knew he had that ability to go to the next level.”
Go to the next level he did. However, despite the accolades, Davies felt the need to apologise for an error in the final Test, which ended in the draw.
That in itself, speaks volumes.
“To be given the man of the series… he was outstanding. He was probably at his best. The calmness and the experience he showed,” said Gatland, who was head coach of the Lions for both of Davies’ tours.
“He came up to me after the third Test, when Ngani Laumape scored early on from a cross-kick after the ball had been in play for a number of minutes.
“He said: ‘I’m sorry, my legs had gone.’ The ball had been in play for about five minutes.
“It was typical of him because he knew he should have probably made the covering tackle. But it was good for me because it changed the way we approached our physical conditioning over the next couple of years in terms of worst case scenarios regarding ball-in-play time and how to deal with that.
“He was just sensational on that tour. He showed some great leadership and he thoroughly deserved that man of the series accolade.”
Injuries take their toll
Had Davies enjoyed slightly more fortune on the injury front, we’d have been writing this article about the 100-cap landmark a number of years ago.
“When he has an injury, it always seems to be a big one,” commented James.
There have been knee ligament injuries - plural - a pectoral problem and the displacement of metatarsals in his foot, among other issues.
He missed the 2015 World Cup and the entire 2018 and 2020 Six Nations campaigns, and his absence was felt.
“Yes, we had some strength in depth but we certainly missed him at the World Cup,” said Howley.
“Jamie and Scott Williams stepped up but he’s a world class player and we missed him.
“But he has the resilience to keep bouncing back and still be asking the questions of Wayne [Pivac] and Stephen [Jones].
“Nobody will see the amount of work a player has to do when they are out with long-term injuries. The rehabilitation, getting up early because physios want to see you early in the morning, it’s the commitment and dedication.
“When you’re able to return from major injuries and get back to the level Jonathan has, you become a special player and he has done that consistently over 13 years.”
James adds: “I haven’t seen many as professional as him. His attitude has always been the same, it is what it is and you just have to get on with your rehab.
“When you look at his age and the injuries that he has had, it’s quite incredible that he is still playing at the level he is.”
The landmark day
There’s very little, if anything, left for Davies to prove. He touched greatness in 2017. There wasn’t a team in the world that wouldn’t have been improved by his presence at that time.
The centre has now won four Six Nations titles, including two Grand Slams, and is a two-time Lion, a Test-winning Lion at that.
He will have his own goals that only a finite number of people will know about and his experiences of World Cups will likely always frustrate him but, in truth, he doesn’t owe anyone any more.
To be a constant at the top of this most brutal of sports for well over a decade is a remarkable achievement and to enjoy the level of success he has only amplifies the aforementioned sentiments.
But in terms of what comes next, well, the ball is in his court. Form has fluctuated since he recovered from his most recent knee injury two years ago and he finds himself desperately clinging to the jersey he has dominated for so long, with new challengers emerging.
“It’s up to Jonathan now,” says Howley. “There may be things on his bucket list that he wants to achieve and I’ve got no doubt that one of them may be 100 caps.
“He has to now maintain his energy, his drive and the commitment that he has given to the game for over a decade.
“I just hope he gets the opportunity to prove to the likes of Wayne and Steve that they have to pick him. I hope he gets another performance to prove to players around him, and probably to himself, that he can still cut it at this level.
“I believe he can.”
Gatland concludes: “The thing with Foxy is that he is an outstanding professional.
“Jonathan is a natural athlete, he’s gifted in terms of that. He’s in great shape physically, he always looked after himself and trained incredibly hard.
“He prepared well and he was the kind of player that you wanted next to you, with that experience and the calmness that he brings on the field. He doesn’t get flustered.
“He’s been an unbelievable servant for Wales.”
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