Former Welsh rugby union player Mervyn Davies died Thursday afternoon, aged 65, after losing a long battle with cancer, BBC reported.

Davies, number 8, was universally known as 'Merv the Swerve' who led Wales to the 1976 Five Nations Grand Slam.

Swansea-born Davies attended Penlan County School. He joined London Welsh in 1968 and won his first cup for Wales against Scotland in 1969.

He won a total of 38 consecutive matches for Wales and also scored two victorious British and Irish Lions tours to New Zealand in 1971 and South Africa in 1974. During this period he won two Grand Slams and three Triple Crowns.

However, his career ended in 1976 after he suffered an intra-cranial haemorrhage while captaining against Pontypool in a Welsh Cup semi-final.

Four years earlier he had collapsed during a game and had been wrongly diagnosed with meningitis. After the second incident, he was treated at the University Hospital of Wales for several months.

Davis, recognized by his iconic trademark thick moustache and white headband, was inaugurated into the International Rugby Hall of Fame in 2001.

In 2002, in a poll of Welsh Rugby fans, he was voted both 'Greatest Ever Welsh Captain' and 'Greatest Ever Welsh Number 8'. A year later he was made the chairman of the Welsh rugby ex- internationals organization (WREX).

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