Not after an argument but Watkins, Fielding at Salford, Bevan to the Wires, Scott Gibbs to Saints, Inga ( whats his name ) to Wigan. Yer Jiffy just pips Gibbs 🙂
Such a gifted player and intelligent TV commentator and pundit. One of my favourite Welsh rugby players - his try against the Kangaroos where he ran around Bret Mullins was one of the best, Mullins was frequently doing that to opposition players himself (he was freakishly fast) and for someone to do it against him was inconceivable.
i meet him a few fair times and spent time with him when he was at widnes.i was on the ground staff.he always came in for kicking practise on his own on tuesday and thursday mornings.i was his catcher underneath the sticks as he was booting them over.i was kicking them back lucky enough to watch him playing in a magical widnes side and when he went to warrington and at great britain level.magical player.also outstanding in australia particularly for canterbury bulldogs.respect forever jiffy.
He was the quickest rugby league player ever to score a Thousand points in Rugby League ever back in the early 1990's great player must give him credit where it is well deserved .
What a player - brilliant pundit too, speaks a lot of sense about the game. Can I just commend you, Spacecowboy149, on a beautifully put together video. Lots of the tribute videos on the web these days just have loud music clouding the commentary and none of it matches the footage. You've edited the footage and commentary to link in very nicely with what is a very appropriate musical overture. Great stuff.
i'm pretty young i was actually born in 1994 so all i have seen of Jonathan davies is him being a pundit on bbc but to see some of his tries, well.. wow
GB Rugby league team had some amazing talent in the late 80's and early 90's with the likes of Davies, offiah, Hanley, schoefield etc. all amazing talents but the speed and swerve of jiffy was unbelievable. Awesome player.
Alongside Hanley and others we really should have beaten the Aussies in at least one series but contrived to lose with bizarre stuff happening. However you have to hand it to Mal Meninga and co. Their team was also chock full of genius as well. ! Classic league battles. Considered myself lucky to have been young and watched it all free to air or at Naughton Park with my Dad RIP.
Thanks for putting this video together mate. I've been looking for footage of Jiffy because I remember watching him back in the 80's & 90's. He was an awesome player, skilled and also brave. I remember Wales v Fiji or Samoa in his last Rugby World Cup, he was all over the pitch tackling anything that moved; after the game the commentators said he'd made more tackles than the forwards, ! Thanks again !
What a player. No 10 is a religious symbol in Wales. He should be made a Saint. It is so good to see how Rugby should be played i. e. You run around your opponents not through or over them. Feckin brilliant and thanks for the video.
He was one pf my fave players back in the day and I'm English. I was sad when he moved to league in 1989, but I understood why. I have yet to see a back in union with better acceleration from a standing start. He got into 5th gear very quickly.
@Anthony Joshua That's an incorrect comparison or example I believe. A world cup only takes a few games to win. Davies broke records in both codes. In Great Britain. One code in Australia. He could score tries from impossible situations. Wilkinson played safety first in one. His points scoring from the boot is outstanding. However. He didn't score many tries. It's my opinion that he wasn't as exciting as Davies. I think that's what the original contributor meant. Possibly.
I saw him play “live” many many times. He was magical to watch just like Offiah and for different reasons Kurt sorenson. My Widnes lads of the early 90s were amazing to watch but Wigan had that Indian sign o er us as did Leeds sometimes. I loved the premiership final against Bradford northern which I watched from one of the best old standing areas ever created the old old Trafford paddock. Wonderful times. Wonderful player. Thanks Jonathan.
Im a kiwi and a HUGE J.Davies fan,watching all those guys chasing him two of them were Terry Wright while playing against the All Blacks and Brett Mullins from the Kangaroos those guys are not slow.I know they dont give All Black or Kangaroo jerseys to just any body but man he made those two look very ordinary...Special player
He made Mullins look fairly ordinary but Terry Wright came back and was eating the meters up on him...dont get me wrong I loved JD aswell his acceleration over those first 20m was unbelievable.
@@staceyspooner5798 still couldn’t catch him though. If the line wasn’t so close, JD would have used one of his side steps to elude him but yeah, Terry Wright did well to almost catch him👍🏽
great vid spacecowboy, well edited to the musci as well, Jonathan Davies going north broke my heart in 88 what a player he was and a nice bloke too met him in Cardiff in the flyhalf and firkin, top bloke
Feckin amazing that's why Rugby's a religion and an art form too when played like this. JD so privileged to have seen him live but all this is great too AND keeps his skills alive for all to marvel at.
And to think when he went to League they said he would be too small. Maybe, because of his split time between codes, the most underrated player of all time.
Can’t believe Llanelli rejected him 🤷♂️🤷♂️🤷♂️🤷♂️neath saw the talent and thank god he didn’t end up a painter and decorator. Can you imagine what we would have lost. Hope that there’s mileage for all “smaller framed” folks in muscle sports with cheslin, Shane Williams, Faf de Klerk, Schalk Britts!!, kwagga smith etc. all being told they weren’t good enough as they were too small.
Great player it's a pity that the WRU messed the Welsh game up at the time because I'am sure Jiffy would have stayed in Wales if they'd have modernised our club teams .
The crazy thing is, I'd love to chuck him straight into a wales greatest ever 15 but we also had the likes of Barry John & Phil Bennett in the same position. We've been truly blessed with number 10's over the years.
A class act, and despite what someone said on here, a very insightful commentator. Would love to see more of the 7s match against New Zealand - been hoping someone would upload footage at some stage..
I think the best convert to rugby league ive seen.. What a player his footwork & timing and his ability to beat defenders in both codes ALL BLACK Terry Wright and Kangaroo Brett Mullins were absolute race horses but both were casualties of Jonathan Davies
Pure magic. John, Edwards, Bennet and Davies. Jeez, Wales were blessed with mercurial players. These guys could not only control a game, but also were spectacular in attack. You just don’t get that in modern rugby players these days.
Good old Jiffy! He may sound a bit funereal as a pundit, but what a player. The first Rugby League match I ever saw him play was the one on here for Widnes where Canberra's Laurie Daley almost takes his head off. I think he won over a lot of sceptics that night. I'd seen him in Rugby Union and wondered at how skinny he looked, but he made the grade in RL, and then some.
I have just had the pleasure of spending this Friday night on the piss with him in Spain for a corporate doo….. not only one of the best players (of both codes) but a truly lovely bloke….. living legend.
After 40 years of watching top flight rugby, many have impressed, but none more than Ollie Campbell, Jason Robinson and this lad Davies. Different gravy.
I watched JD at the Gnoll many times when he played for Neath. He spired me so much and I believe it is whee he not only made his break, but played some of his best rugby (altough I cannot deny how good he was at League too)
+kiefer sutherland No, though he was brilliantly talented he certainly wasn't the best at union- in fact i think he generally underperformed for Wales, unfortunate with the period he played for the country. Barry John, Phil Bennett, Cliff Morgan were better Welsh outside halfs. He was better at league, i.m.o. And Maradona is overrated, reality doesn't match the myths.
Femi Balogun: Far too few realise just how good he was.Too many criticise him as a pundit,unfairly denigrating him as an old hasbeen,but he knows what he is talking about.One of the true greats.
a reminder that there's no substitute for raw speed, it's nice to see the little guy shred everything in his path, the bloke was literally running for his life - because there wasn't much to fall back onto where he was from.
Johnathan Davies was the best flyhalf Wales ever produced by a country mile.Barry John and Phil Bennett were good , but Johnathan Davies was simply brilliant and had speed the others never had.
Er, sorry John but Barry John and Phil Bennett were a bit better than 'good'. I'm a huge fan of Jonathan and saw him play but he has the benefit of many recordings. If we had video footage of all of Barry John's performances, ditto Phil Bennett, I think you would give them a bit more credit. Most of the clips here are from his League days when he had developed as a player. His performances for Wales (union) were good but not in the league of Phil Bennett or Barry John.
Was a Halifax fan at Thrum Hall when he produced the two tries highlighted here. I remember thinking 'oh no!' when the ball was in his hands. There was an air gloomy inevitability when he set off for the sticks. Only other players to give that sense of trepidation was Hanley and Offiah....different players but for me, Davies was the complete player. If there was a Top Trump cards for Rugby players, Davies would be highest card in the pack.
Three things: 1. Someone (I can't remember who) said that they have only ever seen two players who could change direction without their feet being on the ground, one was JD, the other was Jason Robinson. 2. Kicking game, defence and thinking on his feet, the only other players who come close to him, (league and/ or union) are Campese and Lockyer. 3. Five times international! Wales RU&RL, British & Irish Lions RU, British Lions RL, and for the icing on the cake, The Barbarians. One of my favourite all time players, 15 or 13... and I'm English.
The try at 0:22 showed his toughness- quite early in his League career, if memory serves, and nearly had his head knocked off. He was fine at Union but i think better still at League.
Shame I Never Really Got To See Him Play As He Started His Career In 1982 And I Wasn't Born Then & Retired In 1997 When I Was 7. Shame Cause From The Clips Ive Seen He Was The All Round Backs Player. Basically If You Had Sam Tomkins Or Billy Slater,Martin Offiah,Brian O'Driscoll & Dan Carter/Kevin Sinfield All Rolled Into 1 Player You Have 1 Very Special Rugby Footballer - Jonathan Davies
@welldai Errr, he was better at league. He once stated he felt like a pariah when he went back to Union. Whatever, the man was the best League player I witnessed for GB.
as a union man, I can't believe what I'm seeing. After 1988, JD ceased to exist for me. I had no idea he had so much pace - like a winger - he must be the fastest running 10 I've ever seen in union.. n'est pas?
80s and 90s a lot union players from Britain, NZ and oz moved to league. Jonathan Davies, tuigamala, Frano botica, mathew ridge, daryl halligan, Michael o Connor, Gouley,
First Australian/Wallabies RU convert to lift the famous RL Challenge cup was Herb Gilbert as captain of Hull FC in 1914(he was 26), he was one of the first dual code internationals, career at Hull interupted by WWI he went on to play for Western & Eastern Suburbs, St.George until his retirment in 1921 then coached St.George for 4 years. You'd be surprised how many union players came to play league long before the 80/90s, the 50s/60s/70s was also a huge period for players coming over to play TGG.
While Phil Bennet for me was the greatest flyhalf.. Davis was the complete player, turn a game in an instant.. some of his touch finders from the old wales days were sublime…
The best ever. You can argue Barry John, Dan Carter and a few others... But imagine this beast playing behind the Forwards those two were gifted with. Jiffy proved his worth when he went to RL (to the eternal shame of the small minded Narcissists of the WRU).. In good teams, Jonathon Davies was unplayable. Then.... off to Australia he pops.... "Nah warries sport, we'll put this drongo in traction" said the Aussies ...They couldnt get near him
your not wrong bro Rugby in this country is a religion and the talent here is unbelieveable, a year ago we were all fighting for the world cup and in this current All Blacks side a lot of those guys were not even on the Radar like Aaron smith, Ratelick, Savea, Barrett this is just a few theres other guys named T.J Perenara and Tawera kerr-Barlow pressing Smith and Weepu for that 9 jersey and they know that, Andre Taylor sitting behind Izzy Dagg for his jersey,Rene Ranger cant even get a mention
wales lost, davies, quinnell and gibbs (among others) to league during the 90's... would england have been so dominant in the 5N in this period? Did the english press EVER refer to this when describing 'poor' welsh performances? you know the answers
Little Englander hateful rabid nationalist gutter press. The Daily Heil/Mail supported Hitler and would again, the Express and Sun are also obsessed with foreigners and immigrants- all 3 papers owned by greedy bigoted billionaires conning the masses.
I’m from Wales, the reason he left was because of the WRU and how they treated players. We had come third in the World Cup and then lost to Romania! Players and the team were so demoralised.
Davies was the only bit of class you had at the time. In fact looking at the all time record for Wales against the All Blacks it seems that for all but 3 encounters Wales RU were all not aware of what was going on. When he played on teams where the rest of the players were as competent as he was, his true quality was undeniable.