TRIBUTES flooded in for Wales’ 1976 Grand Slam captain Mervyn Davies yesterday after the legendary number eight’s death at the age of 65 was announced.

Davies won two Grand Slams with Wales and played in all eight Test matches during the Lions’ series wins in New Zealand in 1971 and South Africa three years later.

The Swansea-born back row forward, who played his club rugby for the All Whites and London Welsh, passed away on Thursday after a long battle with cancer.

Graham Price, his Wales teammate from the glory days of the 1970s, said he fondly remembered the great man, affectionately nicknamed ‘Merv the Swerve’.

Davies, who also won the Grand Slam in 1971, was captain when the Pontypool front row great won his first cap during Wales’ famous 25-10 victory over France in Paris in 1975.

“Merv was a great player and captain – he was one of my heroes when I was in school,” Price said.

“He’d won a Grand Slam, Triple Crowns and been on two successful Lions tours.

“So to find myself playing alongside him was a privilege.”

Price added: “Merv always led by example. He would always put his body on the line and you knew he wouldn’t ask you to do anything he wouldn’t do himself.

“When I used to play against him for Pontypool, he always used to dive into rucks from the wrong side and get away with it. He was the Richie McCaw of his day!

“I always got on well with Merv. When I first came into the Wales side, I was in awe of high profile players like Gareth Edwards, Phil Bennett and JPR Williams.

“But Merv was a piano shifter like me, not one of the piano players!”

Davies was a great character away from the pitch as well, as Price recalls.

“There was a beer culture off the field in those days and Merv was always very sociable!” he said.

“I used to see him regularly at the former international players’ room at the Millennium Stadium.

“It’s so sad not to have him around any more.”

Davies was an iconic figure in the seventies with his Mexican-style droopy moustache and white headband.

He won 38 caps for Wales, his glittering career cut short after he suffered a brain haemorrhage playing for Swansea in a Welsh Cup semi-final against Pontypool in 1976.

Davies was treated at Cardiff’s University Hospital of Wales for several months after the haemorrhage.

He had been hot favourite to lead the 1977 Lions tour to New Zealand.

Phil Bennett, a long-time teammate of Davies with Wales and the Lions, also paid tribute to his friend.

He recalled how Davies was inspired to improve as a player during the 1974 Lions tour to South Africa by the presence of England’s Andy Ripley, a rival for the number eight jersey.

Bennett said: “Rippers was playing the rugby of his life and Mervyn said, ‘I’m going to step my game up’.

“And he started to play rugby football like I’ve never seen him play before. He was totally outstanding.

“I was captain of the 1977 Lions that went out to New Zealand.

“Without doubt he’d have been skipper of that ‘77 tour and thoroughly would have deserved it.

“That’s the fate life plays on you at times. To lose him so tragically is absolutely devastating.”