{"id":87135,"date":"2025-08-23T09:45:07","date_gmt":"2025-08-23T09:45:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/87135\/"},"modified":"2025-08-23T09:45:07","modified_gmt":"2025-08-23T09:45:07","slug":"nigel-owens-my-friend-jiffy-is-a-brilliant-man-how-he-hasnt-been-knighted-ill-never-know","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/87135\/","title":{"rendered":"Nigel Owens: My friend Jiffy is a brilliant man – how he hasn’t been knighted I’ll never know"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nigel Owens has paid tribute to his good friend and work colleague Jiffy for all he has done for charity in Wales\"Nigel<\/p>\n

Nigel Owens is an international rugby referee. Born in 1971 in Mynyddcerrig near Cross Hands, he started refereeing in 1987, and eventually became one of the Welsh Rugby Union’s first three professional referees in 2001. He refereed his first full international in 2003, and in 2015, he took charge of the World Cup Final, having become regarded as the world’s best referee. He received an MBE for services to sport in 2016. Nigel came out as gay in 2007, and has also spoken openly about his battle with bulimia. <\/p>\n

Nigel Owens (right) and his mate Jiffy (Image: Richard Swingler)<\/p>\n

As a boy growing up in the Gwendraeth Valley in the 1980s, I had two rugby heroes who were playing at that time, Mark Ring and Jonathan \u2018Jiffy\u2019 Davies.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m eight or nine years younger than Jiffy, so I was in my early teenage years when he first turned out for Wales, and I fondly remember watching him in action. He was a brilliant fly-half, and few could turn games on their head like he did – in both codes, let\u2019s not forget.<\/p>\n

I only met him for the first time in 2003, when we were both asked to work on Jonathan for S4C, and we filmed the pilot together. We started recording the show the following year and, just over 20 years later, it\u2019s still going strong.<\/p>\n

They do say never meet your heroes, and that\u2019s bloody true! But in all seriousness, Jiffy is one of the greats. Not just as a player, but he is one of the great characters too, not to mention a brilliant friend.<\/p>\n

We have formed a close friendship over the past 20 years or so, not just on-screen but off of it too, and he is someone I feel very lucky to know.<\/p>\n

Jiffy is also an incredibly dedicated, selfless individual and his charity endeavours over the years have been nothing short of remarkable.<\/p>\n

He was back on his bike last week to lead his fifth Cancer 50 Challenge<\/a>, cycling between Cardiff and Swansea, in an event that has helped to raise hundreds of thousands of pounds for Velindre and Swansea Bay Health Charity.<\/p>\n

As president of Velindre, Jiffy has helped to raise a staggering total of more than \u00a350 million for the cancer charity, which we can all agree is absolutely incredible.<\/p>\n

It is made all the more remarkable when you take into account all he went through<\/a>, losing his father to cancer when he was just a boy, before his wife Karen also died from the disease some 20 years later.<\/p>\n

He saw first-hand the work that Velindre did and has now dedicated so much time and effort to giving back.<\/p>\n

I lost my mum to cancer when I was in my early 30s, so I know just what he went through, and I can understand where his drive and commitment comes from. He showed it on the rugby field for so many years and he still has it now in his 60s.<\/p>\n

Jiffy will be the first to say that he couldn\u2019t do what he does alone, and he\u2019s got a fantastic team around him at Velindre, and a lot of people who join him in support on the bike ride too. But he is the figurehead of it all, he really goes above and beyond to raise money and awareness of such a worthy cause.<\/p>\n

How he is still able to keep going, particularly after having operations on his back and on his knee, is exceptional. He is so driven, both physically and mentally, and he\u2019s turned the tragic losses he\u2019s unfortunately experienced into something really special.<\/p>\n

You can see how much his hard work is appreciated from the many, many emails, letters, phone calls and personal well-wishes he gets from people. They are so grateful for what he does.<\/p>\n

If anybody deserves a knighthood, it is Jiffy. Not just for what he has done for rugby in Wales, but for his charity work and entertainment too.<\/p>\n

How he hasn\u2019t been made a Sir yet, I will never know. But I really hope that he gets what he richly deserves in the very near future, and I\u2019m sure I\u2019m far from alone in saying that.<\/p>\n

Above everything, he is a brilliant character and someone who is a pleasure to be around. When I film Jonathan with him and Sarra Elgan, it really is a laugh a minute.<\/p>\n

It never feels like I\u2019m going to work, instead I\u2019m going to see my friends. It\u2019s a joy to be there. Of course, everyone who works on that show helps to create that environment, but Jiffy is obviously right at the heart of it.<\/p>\n

We have shared some fantastic memories together over the years and I have come to know him very well indeed. He has his moments, of course, as we all do, and if he\u2019s not happy with something then it\u2019s not hard to tell!<\/p>\n

The other day, I was thinking back to the Rugby World Cup in 2023, when Jiffy, Sarra and I were in a taxi being driven to our hotel. It was late, we were all tired and one thing that Jiffy hates is airports and travelling.<\/p>\n

The taxi driver had no idea how to get to the hotel – we could see it, he just didn\u2019t know how to get to it. He was just driving round and round and you could see how irritated Jiffy was getting, and it didn\u2019t help that me and Sarra were winding him up about it!<\/p>\n

In the end, he had enough and just got out of the taxi and walked to the hotel himself, leaving us in tears of laughter. We eventually got to the hotel in the taxi and found him in the lobby checking in, still fuming about the taxi driver! It was so funny.<\/p>\n

The final thing I\u2019ll say about Jiffy is he lives life to the full. He is a very wise, dedicated man but he knows how to enjoy himself with a few beers too.<\/p>\n

He is a great ambassador not just for Welsh rugby, but for Wales as a whole. I know I feel very proud to call him my friend.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nigel Owens has paid tribute to his good friend and work colleague Jiffy for all he has done…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":87136,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[41650,22275,5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-87135","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-jonathan-jiffy-davies","9":"tag-nigel-owens","10":"tag-rugby","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom","14":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87135","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87135"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87135\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/87136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}