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David Davies: British and Irish Lions, Six Nations and World Cup memories

It's almost impossible to choose one single moment from 30-odd years covering rugby.

There is a  temptation to say any Welsh victory over England as that used to be a rare thing, but now it's more commonplace it's almost the norm.

Although 2013 when England came to Cardiff to win the Grand Slam and ended up losing the Championship is genuinely one of the highlights, but then that belittles all the other grand occasions.

Any Six Nations game always has its buzz. Six stadiums with six totally different atmospheres is always something to look forward to and enjoy. The bear pit of the Millennium Stadium, the trumpets of Paris, the smell of the whiskey around Murrayfield always give the day a special edge, and that some of these days probably only come around once a year for the longer trips makes them something to look forward to.

I remember in the early 2000s going to Murrayfield for an England game, with Scotland in with a chance, and the Scotland national anthem was sung with such gusto it felt like the ground was vibrating under my feet.

The walk from the Metro to the Stade de France, or way back a pre-match Ricard in a bar near the Parc des Princes, feels like a sneaky treat, a day away from the usual routine and to take in the continental surroundings and savour them.

These are also a good chance to take Mrs Davies away for the weekend as she does enjoy her rugby. I took her to Paris in 2015 for the Wales game and she had a ticket with the Welsh fans right at the front so I could go and see her at half time. When she opened her mouth she was speaking in a bit of a dodgy Welsh accent and when questioned she replied if anyone asks we were from Tonypandy. "I can't let them know I'm English!"

World Cups always give back so many memories.

My first was South Africa in 1995 which was just eye-opening. It was my first long tour and I was about 26 and very fresh-faced. The opening game in Cape Town wasn't so much a game of rugby than a unification of a nation and it just rolled on from there. The monsoon in Durban weekends in Cape Town with England and then the final.

This does raise something that does colour my rugby memories: the pictures I get, or don't get. That final I 'lost' the roll of film with the winning drop goal on. In those days we gave our film to an on-site processor which I did with that particular roll only to never see it again. It went missing somewhere between me handing it to the designated runner and my collection. In my mind's eye that picture has got better over the years and would have been iconic, but then we'll never know, will we?

Also during that World Cup Rob Andrew managed to disappear behind the post pad for his drop goal against Australia in the Quarter Final thanks to the allocated position I was given. Having said that, what goes around comes around and in 2003 Jonny Wilkinson managed to take his winning kick between two Australians rather than behind them and begs the question which one of those two drop goals would you really want anyway.

Shane Williams' last try for Wales: he did his rollover so close to me all I got was a boot. Missed try pictures, missed incidents all contribute to a good or bad feeling about a game, even a trip.

2013 Lions: all the tries seemed to be going in the opposite corner but then in the First Test in Brisbane, George North broke the run and landed in front of me.

Lions v Australia 2013 Second Test: rubbish game for pictures apart from one of George North picking up Israel Folau; got that and all of a sudden it's a great game.

2019 Rugby World Cup seemed bereft of try pictures and then when I got a good one I got it wrong and I struggled to get past that all trip – even though looking back a year later I didn't do that badly really.

It is the ones you miss you seem to remember more vividly for some reason.

Of all the memories the Lions probably gives me some of the best.

My rugby interest was started with my Uncle Brian in Cardiff who used to get me match programmes in the 70s and 80s. I return the favour now with programmes from World Cups and Lions (he must have quite a set by now).

He always stoked the Welsh fire and to that, the Lions as well. This mystical team that I really should try and go and see.

Five tours and 15 tests later I look back on my first Test, Brisbane 2001, and Jason Robinson's opening try (which I got – watch the replay, the yellow jacket behind him when he celebrates, that's me!). How exciting that was.

The first test in Christchurch 2005, how cold that was! Second Test in Pretoria 2009, how brutal that was...

The Lions tours are rare. Sport these days is overloaded with big occasions, or so the TV company would have you believe. The home nations play the All Blacks every year it seems, not every four or five like it used to be. Every Premier League football match is a title decider apparently, but the Lions… every four years, every 12 for the host.

Why do they have this mystical aura? Because if you miss the chance to beat the All Blacks in their back yard it will be 12 years before you get a chance to redeem that, not next Autumn or next June. So you savour every Lions test you do.

At every big game, and some smaller ones, I'm generally running up and down the touch-line. I do try and take a couple of minutes to just stop and take it all in. We are in an incredibly privileged position on that touchline, closer to the action than the other winger sometimes and you have to appreciate that. I just stop at a quiet moment in play, look up and around me and take it all in because you just never know when you'll be in that position again.

Never take it for granted for as this last year has proved it's nothing without the fans and the atmosphere they generate is what makes those occasions so great.

South Africa v The Lions, Pretoria 2009. It was such a brutal test; a series decider as it turned out. At the time I perhaps didn't realise as I was obviously concentrating on the game for work but watching it back it was just like I remember rugby was when I first started watching it, everything on the line; the commitment, how the game swung from one team to the other and its dramatic conclusion. It was exhausting to watch!

I can't forget Wales v England 2013. England turn up expecting to win the Grand Slam, lose by 30 points and lose the match, the Grand Slam and the Championship all in one go. It really doesn't get much better than that.

There is however one overriding thing that colours all these memories and that is my mates, my pals, the people I have done all this with. The road trips round New Zealand, that charter plane to Invercargill in 2005. Taxis around Edinburgh when the plane was delayed. Gerald Davies' Lions blazer in Melbourne, being on a Wales team charter flight to Wellington in 2011. Quiz night on tour. This game has given me so much, but best of all are the friendships made.

Memory added on February 11, 2021

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