Well, not anymore. There’s a new kid in town. Same club, same name, different build. What’s more Jonathan “Don’t call me Jon” Davies mark two is starting to make the same powerful waves as his namesake did back in his early days at Trimsaran. Last Friday, the powerful centre who has already been compared to a young Scott Gibbs displayed his precocious talent in front of the Kingsholm crowd in Gloucester as Wales U20 kicked off their U20 Six Nations campaign with a defeat at the hands of England U20.
A loser – on that occasion – he might have been, but Welsh rugby has uncovered a real winner in the 19-year-old from Laugharne. A product of Whitland RFC and the WRU Scarlets Academy, Jonathan Davies is a special talent. Already established as a member of the Scarlets senior squad, the teenage prodigy is way ahead of his time. Despite being a touch bashful when compared with Gibbs, Davies certainly doesn’t mind sharing the same name with one of Welsh rugby’s most famous sons. Well, at least his grandmother wouldn’t have it any other way.
“Please don’t call me Jon as my grandmother gets upset when she sees it in the papers,” said Davies. “To be compared to Scott Gibbs is very humbling. If I can achieve just half of what he did in his career, that would be amazing.”
The comparison was made by Scarlets’ Assistant Coach Paul Moriarty, who said: “He is probably the closest thing we have had to a Scott Gibbs type of 12 in Welsh rugby for a long time.”
Moriarty, played alongside Gibbs during their time at Swansea continued: “Jonathan has got absolute power with the skill to go with it. When you look at his testing with the Union’s academy set-up, some of his power outputs are comparable to world class rugby players. When you look at a 19-year-old doing that now, in two or three years time what is his potential?”
Davies’s emergence as one of the game’s brightest prospects was hampered last year when he suffered a serious leg break picked up at the IRB U19 World Championships in Dubai which kept him out of the game for the best part of a year. However, with that enforced rest behind him, Davies is back with a vengeance and ready to continue his development, with the Scarlets and now with the Wales U20 squad who, after the U20 Six Nations campaign, will turn their attentions to the upcoming IRB Junior World Championship here in Wales.
He said: “We showed tremendous endeavour last week against England, and the result could have been different but for some missed chances in the first half. We still have everything to play for in this Championship and we are looking forward to our first home game against Scotland to try and get us back on track.
“We want to win all our remaining games, but ultimately we are building towards the Junior World Championship in June where the best Under 20 teams in the world will be competing for the top spots.”
