{"id":8989,"date":"2012-03-16T15:15:20","date_gmt":"2012-03-16T13:15:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/03\/rugby-wales-and-lions-hero-mervyn-davies-dies-aged-65\/"},"modified":"2012-03-16T15:15:20","modified_gmt":"2012-03-16T13:15:20","slug":"rugby-wales-and-lions-hero-mervyn-davies-dies-aged-65","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/rugby-wales-and-lions-hero-mervyn-davies-dies-aged-65\/","title":{"rendered":"Rugby-Wales and Lions hero Mervyn Davies dies aged 65"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t<span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"articleLocation\">LONDON, March 16<\/span> (Reuters) &#8211; Former Wales captain<br \/>\nMervyn Davies, the tall, rangy number eight at the heart of the<br \/>\nmagnificent 1971 and 1974 British and Irish Lions sides, has<br \/>\ndied at the age of 65.<span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Davies was a tough, skilled tight-loose forward who<br \/>\ndominated the end of the lineout in his eight tests for the<br \/>\nLions side who won series in New Zealand and South Africa for<br \/>\nthe first time.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>He won two grand slams with the great Welsh side of the<br \/>\n1970s plus three triple crowns and was the favourite to captain<br \/>\nthe Lions in the 1977 tour of New Zealand.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>However, he was forced into premature retirement when he<br \/>\nsuffered a brain haemorrhage playing for Swansea in a Welsh Cup<br \/>\nsemi-final in 1976 which almost cost him his life.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>A statement by the Welsh Rugby Union on Friday said Davies<br \/>\nhad died after a long illness.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Flags at the Millennium Stadium are flying at half mast<br \/>\nfrom today in honour of Davies,&#8221; the statement said.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;A minute&#8217;s silence will be held in tribute to Davies at all<br \/>\nWales international games across the weekend.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Everyone involved in the game in Wales offers their<br \/>\ncondolences to the family and friends of a true giant of the<br \/>\ngame who was known universally as &#8216;Merv The Swerve&#8217;.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Wales are going for this year&#8217;s Six Nations grand slam on<br \/>\nSaturday when they host France.<br \/>\n\u00a0 <span class=\"label\"><strong>Continued&#8230;<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>LONDON, March 16 (Reuters) &#8211; Former Wales captain Mervyn Davies, the tall, rangy number eight at the heart of the magnificent 1971 and 1974 British and Irish Lions sides, has died at the age of 65. Davies was a tough, skilled tight-loose forward who dominated the end of the lineout in his eight tests for [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[830,2370,183],"class_list":{"0":"post-8989","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-news","8":"tag-reuters","9":"tag-south-africa-2","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8989","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8989"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8989\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}