Welsh rugby legend Mervyn Davies remembered

This documentary from BBC Wales tells the remarkable story of the great Mervyn Davies, who has died at the age of 65.

He only found out his father played for Wales in the post-war internationals after finding his shirt in a drawer.

Davies was never really the right shape for rugby union. Height aside, his team-mate Gareth Edwards says there was more meat on a skewer. And yet he became probably the best Welsh forward ever.

He turned up to play for London Welsh, started in the thirds, but was bought into the first team simply because he was tall. After only six games he was named in the Welsh side. And how did he find out? Here the documentary shows another glimpse of a foreign land. There was no phone call from the coach, text message or a tweet. Instead “Merv the Swerv” bought the Daily Mirror and found the team in the corner of one of the pages.

There is wonderful footage of Davies enjoying a cigarette by the pool on tour in South Africa. Pregnant celebrity Stacey Solomon, recently vilified for smoking, would wonder at that.

And then suddenly it was over. A brain haemorrhage on the pitch ended his career and clearly greatly scarred his later life. For an athlete to suddenly need a stick was clearly shattering.

Nor did his ill-luck end there, cancer cutting his life short in his sixties. I suggest the Welsh team watch the programme tonight ahead of their Grand Slam match against France on Saturday.

As well as offering a window on an amateur age where a giant cut down by injury did not have the modern solace of thousands in the bank – it should also provide unstoppable motivation for the team to #winitformerv.