World Rugby has announced the appointment of former Welsh international Phil Davies as the new Director of Rugby. He takes over the position from former Ireland national coach Joe Schmidt, who stepped down to spend more time with his family in New Zealand. Davies has a wealth of experience in all forms of the sport. His playing career spanned 13 years and included 46 caps for Wales and 350 appearances for Llanelli RFC. After his illustrious playing career, he has spent the last 25 years coaching at various teams, including Cardiff, Scarlets, Worcester and Namibia. He was head coach of Namibia at two World Cups.
Davies is currently Director of Rugby for Leeds, with his duties with World Rugby to commence in February. This is a massive year for World Rugby as the Sevens World Cup will be held in Cape Town later this year, while the Women’s World Cup 2021 has been rescheduled for October 2022 with New Zealand playing host.
Main responsibilities for new director Davies
Davies’ primary goal will be to assist with the growth of rugby and to make certain that player welfare comes to the fore when new laws are brought into the game. Player safety and welfare will be his mandate when law review processes take place. Davies will be directly reporting to Mark Harrington, the Chief Player Welfare and Rugby Services Officer. His core duties will include designing performance management systems for elite match officials and improving relationships with players on safety and performance. Davies’ biggest task will be improving the performance of smaller nations by fostering development programs at grassroots levels. The gap between the top rugby-playing nations and smaller nations needs to start closing for the game to grow around the world, and Davies could prove to be integral in this effort.
