Mike Davis (rugby union)
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23 January 1942
| Born | Alec Michael Davis 23 January 1942 Lichfield, Staffordshire, England | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Died | 10 May 2022 (aged 80) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Occupation | Schoolmaster | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Alec Michael Davis (23 January 1942 – 10 May 2022) was an England rugby union player and head coach. He played rugby as a lock in his youth for Torquay Athletic RFC and represented the county of Devon before being selected for his first England cap[1] in 1963. He remained in rugby all the rest of his life, continuing to coach youth and senior teams in his home town of Sherborne.
Davis was born in Lichfield and went to Torquay Boys' Grammar School before training as a teacher at St Luke's College, Exeter, where he was studying when he was first selected for the England team in 1963. He also studied at the Royal Naval College in Dartmouth and HMS Raleigh. In club rugby he played for the Devonport Services R.F.C., Harlequins and the Combined Services team. He played for the Devon and Staffordshire county rugby teams and was captain when Staffordshire won the 1969–70 Rugby Union County Championship. He also played water polo and basketball.[2]
International career
Player
His arrival on the international scene as a player was significant enough that he was profiled in the December 1963 issue of Rugby World magazine.
He was a teacher and coach at Sherborne School (1974–2002) where, alongside Phil Jones between 1975 and 1978, he coached the school to four unbeaten seasons with 35 out of 35 school matches being won. Only a handful of games were lost during a coaching partnership which spanned six seasons.[3]
Coach
He was appointed head coach of England for the 1979/80 season, the only England senior coach ever appointed on the merits of their achievements as a school coach rather than a club coach. His international coaching career spanned four seasons to the end of the 1982/83 season. In his first season as coach England won the Grand Slam in the 1980 Five Nations Championship.
| Record as a | Dates from – to | played | won | drawn | lost | win percentage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Player | 19 January 1963 – 21 March 1970 | 16 | 5 | 2 | 9 | 31.25% |
| Coach | 24 November 1979 – 19 March 1983 | 20 | 10 | 3 | 7 | 50.00% |