Mike Davis obituary

Mike Davis, who has died aged 80, will always be associated with one of English rugby union’s most celebrated triumphs. In his first Five Nations campaign as England’s head coach, the schoolteacher from Sherborne helped steer the national team to the 1980 grand slam under the captaincy of Bill Beaumont, the first red rose clean sweep since the late 1950s.

It was a spectacular contrast to the years of underachievement that had preceded Davis’s arrival, with Wales and France having dominated for much of the 70s. England had some fine individual players such as Beaumont, Fran Cotton, Peter Wheeler, Tony Neary, Clive Woodward and Mike Slemen, but selection had been notoriously inconsistent and the team had seldom gelled.

All that changed when Davis took over, having previously coached the successful England Schools XV. He had no senior-level coaching experience but had won 16 caps for England at lock forward between 1963 and 1970. Davis and his senior players were collectively frustrated – “the truth is it haunted us” – that England had not won a grand slam since 1957.

Before Davis took over in the autumn of 1979, England had suffered a heavy 27-3 defeat against Wales in the Five Nations championship in Cardiff, and they also lost 10-9 to the All Blacks in Davis’s first match in charge. Following the New Zealand game, though, Beaumont pulled Davis aside and told him he had a good feeling about the forthcoming Five Nations season. Pick the right team, the players reckoned, and they would have a decent chance against anyone.

Happily Davis had a shrewd eye for playing talent, and his elevation of the Gloucester prop Phil Blakeway was a particular masterstroke. Davis believed a strong “spine” was key to building a consistent