Davies on the change

MERVYN DAVIES shudders when he talks about modern-day rugby. The Wales and British Lions legend from the 60s and 70s was in the island at the weekend as guest speaker at the Guernsey Rugby Club dinner and dance.

Inevitably, talk centres on changes in the sport since his heyday, when it was strictly amateur, to the awesome physical specimens who are professionals in present times.

'The modern game of rugby is about big men,' Davies said.

'In my day there was a place for everybody in rugby and, depending on how big you were, there was a position for you. In today's game, size matters. You have players over 6ft playing stand-off nowadays.

'And they do not call it tackling any more, they talk about big hitting. Bodies take a right hammering these days and I do not think people in the stands or watching on television realise quite how hard these guys are hitting each other.'

The difference, Davies said, is that rugby was not a priority for the players in the amateur days.

'It was a release from all the hassle of the week. You could just blow your mind for 80 minutes.

'We would only train a couple of nights a week and if someone had told me to get into a gym and do some weights, I would have probably told them where to go.

'Professionals cannot do that - it is part of their job.'

A veteran of two Lions tours, Davies admitted that while there was a certain amount of jealously because he did not get paid to play rugby, he would not change a thing from his career.

'As an amateur rugby player, I think you had more fun because it was not your job of work and there emerged a lot of characters. It was a magic time with great humour, friendships as well as tragedy,' said the man whose playing days were ended by a brain haemorrhage.

'I was fortunate in that I played in a very successful Welsh side and went on two British Lions tours and those were good times.

'If you could have had the success I had while being paid for it, it would have been Utopia.

'But I was lucky and I have been a world traveller because of rugby. At 21 years of age, going to New Zealand was a big thing in those days, so there were certainly fringe benefits.'