David Davies

David "Dai" Morgan Davies (5 May 1902 – 22 February 1992) was a Welsh rugby union and professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1920s and 1930s. He played club level rugby union (RU) for Amman United and Neath and after changing codes to rugby league (RL) he played at international level for Wales and at club level for Broughton Rangers, Warrington, Huddersfield and Keighley, as a .

Davies moved to Keighley in August 1936 for a fee of £200, and captaining the team in their only Challenge Cup final to date, a 5–18 defeat by Widnes in the 1937 Challenge Cup Final at Wembley on Saturday 8 May 1937, in front of a crowd of 47,699.

The Challenge Cup final appearance for Keighley was Davies' last game, despite an offer to join Newcastle, he decided to retire from a playing career and became a coach for the Warrington Junior Rugby League, a post he held until the Second World War.

The record of playing in four Challenge Cup finals and being on the losing team in all of them was an unwanted record that Davies held until Paul Loughlin played in five losing finals in the 1980s and 1990s.

International honours At international level Davies won four caps for Wales (RL) from 1928 to 1935 while at Warrington.

Davies made five appearances for the Glamorgan, later Glamorgan and Monmouthshire, county teams in the County Championship and one game for the county against Australia.

Later life Having left school aged 14, Davies had started his working career in the collieries of his native South Wales and throughout his rugby career held other jobs to supplement his rugby payments. After leaving the game during the Second World War he returned to Wales and resumed a career as a pitman. After the war he ran a public house in Warrington while also working as part of the Warrington club's coaching staff. A final return to Wales in 1952 followed and for the remainder of his working life he worked in the pits.

Davies married Katie Rees (1909–1985) in 1932 and they had two children. Dai Davies died in 1992, aged 89.