The moment Nigel Owens knew Jonathan Davies would be 'special'

Retired referee Nigel Owens has paid tribute to Jonathan Davies, the Wales and British and Irish Lions midfielder who announced his retirement as a player earlier this week at the age of 36. The former centre spent 15 seasons with the Scarlets first team and another two at Clermont before deciding to finish up.

Writing in his weekly walesonline.co.uk column, Owens has now recalled the moment he knew a teenage Davies would be a special player. “At the peak of his powers, he was unstoppable and he will rightly be remembered as one of the greatest Welsh players of his generation,” he suggested.

“Of course, it’s easy to say it now, but there was something about him that made me realise early on that he would go on to be a star. In the mid-2000s, it was part of my role as a professional referee to visit each region and offer my services and expertise if they requested I do so, so I used to go in to see Phil Davies and the Scarlets every Tuesday.

“I would go through the penalties they conceded the week before, how they could do better in their next game and discuss what referees would be focused on, it was just things like that, while I would also referee their contact training session that day.

“There were some big characters in that Scarlets squad, but amongst them all was a baby-faced young man called, as I was soon told, Jonathan Davies.

“Of course, say that name to anyone in Welsh rugby at that time and they would think only of the all-time great that is ‘Jiffy’. But you could see just from the occasional training session that this youngster had a special talent himself.

“He was very physical for a kid that was 18 years of age. He was very, very strong and he stood out a bit amongst the rest. It was clear he was very special. It was no surprise to me that he went on to hit the heights that he did.

“He was a crucial part of the Scarlets’ success over the years, especially when they won the PRO12 title in 2017, while he also lit up the international stage for Wales and the Lions.

“In fact, that Lions series in 2017 was when he was at the absolute peak of his powers. He was unstoppable, truly on top of the world and a nightmare for the opposition to deal with.

“The word ‘legend’ is thrown around too much these days, particularly when a player retires, but in this case it really is justified. ‘Fox’ is truly one of the all-time Welsh greats and I hope that he will be remembered and celebrated for decades to come, just as we do with the icons of the 1970s.”