In 1968 , South Africa breathed a sigh of relief when Barry John was invalided out of the Test series in its opening match. They did not know it at the time, but they should have been equally grateful that Gerald Davies had not yet found his true vocation in rugby life.

Davies had played his first two seasons of international rugby at centre and would not switch to the wing until the following year. When he did so, as New Zealand discovered in 1971 , the results were devastating.

The Welsh stylist's first Lions tour was disrupted by injury to the point that he played only nine times and appeared in a single Test, although when he did so - in the third international, at Cape Town - he immediately offered his side the cutting edge they had lacked in the three-quarters ever since John's injury had forced Mike Gibson inside to stand-off.

By 1971, although he had moved to the periphery of the field, he could not have been more central to his team's success.

Davies had missed the previous season by choosing to concentrate on his finals at Cambridge and wasted little time in showing the world what it had missed by scoring five tries as Wales won the Grand Slam.

He carried that form into New Zealand to become the Lions talisman and the attacking weapon that pierced the All Black armour when the stakes and the tension were highest.

The Cardiff and London Welsh hero scored three tries in the Test series and another seven against provincial matches, with his four spectacular efforts against Hawkes Bay proving the ultimate, dismissive riposte to the brutality of the hosts' approach.

His early score in the third Test - a typical blind-side link-up with Gareth Edwards - gave the Lions the early momentum they needed to build a lead that won them the match and ensured they could not lose the series.

But the second of the two he scored in the previous international were arguably just as crucial to the turning of the tide.

Although the Lions were well beaten on the scoreboard, it was the late rally of free-flowing rugby led by Davies' second try that gave them the confidence to go for broke from the start of the crucial third Test three weeks later.

That match also saw a real rugby rarity in a penalty try conceded by gentleman Gerald when he tackled Bryan Williams without the ball.

That moment was the exception to the rule as Davies' play was always characterised by his sporting fairness - not to mention his devastating pace, jarring side-step and flair for the spectacular.

1971 found him at his Lions peak, and showed New Zealanders why his countrymen knew him, like the other legends of the Welsh game, by his first name alone. Like Gareth, Barry and JPR , his brilliance needed no other introduction than Gerald.