Mike Davis (rugby union)


Mike Davis 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 in 1963. He has remained in rugby all his life, continuing even today to coach youth and senior teams in his home town of Sherborne.

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 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.

Coach

He was appointed as 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 aDates from – toplayedwondrawnlostwin percentage
Player19 January 1963 – 21 March 19701652931.25%
Coach24 November 1979 – 19 March 198320103750.00%

School and club coach

He coached England in a strictly amateur era and as such he continued to teach and coach at Sherborne School. With the formation of Sherborne RFC in the early 1980s he was soon enlisted to help raise the standard of play at this burgeoning club and he has coached a variety of sides within the Senior and Junior section on-and-off over the last thirty years.