If Ali was the ‘Greatest’; What about Dave?
Heavy weight boxing? Mohammed Ali would sing to anyone who would listen that he was the greatest. Has Ronaldo eclipsed Pele? Is Federer the match for Laver; or Serena for that matter? Is Tom Brady NFL’s G.O.A.T? Well what about a discussion on who is or was the greatest Navy player (of all time). We look beyond the age of video to the earliest days of Navy Rugby when ‘Dave’ reigned supreme.
On this St George’s Day, a brief article about William John Abbott Davies, known simply as Dave. He was one of England’s greatest players but like many a fine flyhalf, was born in Wales. His record as England, and as the Navy’s, captain remains unparalleled to this day. He won four Grand Slams in his time as a player, two of which were when he was skipper. He led the Royal Navy during their most successful period ever and remains the only Navy captain to have won the Inter Services more than once. He played 9 times against the Army, winning 6, and recorded 3 wins out of the 4 matches he played against the RAF. As the captain of England his win ratio was over 95%, won 10, drew 1 loss 0, a record, for those who have captained on more than 10 occasions, which I believe still stands today. To give some context to this, Martin Johnson, when captaining the side that went on to win the World Cup in 2003, only had an 87% winning ratio and Richie McCaw, of All Blacks fame, could only manage 89% as his winning ratio. So, a little more about Dave Davies – United Services, England and of course, Royal Navy.
To set the scene I will start with the words of James Baxter, who was the chairman of England Selectors at the time when Dave was playing, a former England International himself and a silver medal winning Olympian. The words were written some 10 years after Davies stepped down from international rugby:
“Let me state at once, then, my firm conviction that not only is W.J.A Davies the greatest match-winner who ever put on a football boot, but that as captain of the national fifteen he was essentially the right man in the right place. Idolized by the men under him, trusted to the full by the Rugby Union and all its officers, his lovable personality and intense enthusiasm for the game marked him out as the ideal captain. It is well known that, under his leadership, England has never lost a match, and I think I may say without fear of contradiction that she never expected to lose one, so supreme was the confidence placed in his prowess and in his unfailing ability to rise to the occasion. Now that his great career has come to a close, England and the Royal Navy, not forgetting the United Services, will realize more acutely than ever before all that W.J.A Davies has meant to the game. Failure was to him almost an unknown quantity; again and again he pulled out of the fire matches apparently lost, and even when on the losing side he never ceased his efforts to stem the tide.”
The 22 year old Davies made his England debut on 4 Jan 1913, against the touring South Africa side. England were captained by another great Navy player, Norman Wodehouse who was to later lose his life in the Second World War. Davies was on the losing side in this, his debut game, 9 -3, it was to be the first and last time he tasted defeat in an England jersey. He played a further 21 times for England and the only blemish on the playing record was the 11-11 draw to France in the 1922 Five Nations. In the 1913 Grand Slam winning side he played all 4 matches and this campaign included England’s first ever win in Cardiff. The following year Davies missed the game with Wales but returned to play in the other 3 matches in the 1914 England Grand Slam. After the war, when rugby resumed, he only played in 2 of the 1920 Five Nations matches but was made captain for the 1921 season. He delivered another Grand Slam with wins at home to Wales and Ireland and away in Inverleith and Colombes.
Injury forced him to miss the opening match of the 1922 tournament, a loss to Wales, before he returned to captain the side to three wins in their remaining matches. He then followed this up with another Grand Slam campaign in 1923, his last season as captain of England. The achievement of remaining unbeaten as captain was acknowledged by many at the time with even the King feeling compelled to write via his Equerry:
“The King wishes me to let you know how delighted he was to hear of the victory of the English team in Paris, and to congratulate you on being captain of the winning team in all your matches. His Majesty feels sure that you must have created a record by this fitting termination to your brilliant career in international football.”
The King was right, Davies had set a record and it is a record that remains to this day. Of course, the King had also met Davies through his attendance at Army v Navy matches when after the war it was Davies, as captain, who had introduced his Royal Navy team to King George V in the newly formed Inter Services at Twickenham stadium.
Before the war Davies had joined the Navy as a Constructor Engineer and whilst at the Royal Naval College Keyham played at scrum half. When he moved to Greenwich College, he switched positions to flyhalf and quickly caught the eye of the Royal Navy’s selector at the time, the legendary Ernest Roberts. Davies made his debut in the Royal Navy jersey in the 1911 team led by England International, George D’Orly Lyon. The new fly half was one of 8 debutants which included Francis Oakeley, his scrum half that day. They were both to quickly go on to represent England and who knows where the partnership would have gone but for Oakeley becoming an early submariner casualty in World War I. Prior to the war Davies played under two other captains in Norman Wodehouse and Guy Royle. In Lyon, Wodehouse and Royle, Davies’ early years in the Navy team came under the guidance of three men who were to prove to be exceptional leaders off and on the field of play. They were no doubt a significant influence in how Davies ending up thinking about the game he played as he formulated his style of captaincy which served him so well from 1920 onwards.
During the War, Davies served first on HMS Iron Duke and then the original HMS Queen Elizabeth, a Dreadnought class destroyer. It was the Dreadnought class that the Admiralty were to pin so much of their future power projection hopes on. Fitting for a young Davies whose own power projection, on the rugby field, was about to be fulfilled when hostilities ceased, and rugby resumed.
The team Davies led after the War included 13 new caps, and in that first Inter Service winning season the Royal Navy Rugby Union awarded 18 new caps, a record that remains to this day for a single season. However, though the team was inexperienced it was well led, and Davies had been joined at scrum half by Olympic fencer, Cecil Kershaw. Their halfback pairing was going to be the talk of both Service and International rugby for decades to come and in 1920 it set the scene for the Navy to deal the Army their biggest loss, a loss by 21 points, a record which stood until the famous side of 1974 recorded a 25-3 win. Davies backed up his debut season by retaining the Inter Service title in 1921 and again in 1922. It looked as if it may become 4 in a row but for a 3-0 loss in 1923. That game against the RAF meant that Davies could not match his unbeaten captaincy in an England shirt with those games in the Navy jersey. However, as a captain he played 19 representative matches; won 17, lost 1 and drew 1. Some record.
Today when there are debates about greatest players it is rare for people to recall beyond their own memory, in the first instance, and then if pressed beyond the age of video. This is a shame because we miss so much early talent. In my mind, I have no doubt that William John Abbott Davies was the greatest Navy player that I am aware of; though there are still a few whose playing records I look forward to researching. Via his books and his letters, it is easy to see why he was championed by his playing peers, which even today remain one of the greatest accolades an athlete can achieve. If the Royal Navy Rugby Union had had a ‘Cossack Sword’ in his playing days, his name would have been engraved upon it.
Davies played outside two of the Navy’s great scrum halves, in Oakeley and Kershaw. A third, is currently the Navy’s Head Coach and the Royal Navy Rugby Union’s most capped player. It would be a worthy debate to compare the submariner, with the Olympian, with today’s most recent top scrum half. In his playing days Dave Pascoe fought for his jersey against many very talented scrum halves and but for a brief outing at flyhalf kept the number 9 shirt as his own. When we look at players from different eras it is fun to think what would Davies have made of Pascoe and perhaps, as importantly, what would Pascoe have thought of Davies? Dave and Dave at half back could have been quite a Navy double act!
By line: Geraint Ashton Jones