On two occasions at the end of last year Jonathan Davies found himself on the operating table, a procedure to have a cage fitted into his back followed soon after by some overdue attention to his knee.

“I tore my cruciate in 1982, so it’s been on the cards for a long, long time,” he explains. Compared to the surgery Welsh rugby currently requires, “Jiffy” was lucky.

The fixed knee and back should set him up for a pain-free golf season after the imminent busy part of his calendar with the Six Nations. Davies, 62, has been such a staple of the BBC’s coverage for so long that it is hard to imagine the tournament without him, but a broadcasting cloud looms over this year’s championship, the last in the existing rights deal between the BBC and ITV.

A dozen years have passed since Wales thrashed England 30-3 and that memorable image of a smiling Davies alongside a sombre Sir Clive Woodward and Jeremy Guscott. The odds on the same scoreline to wrap up this year’s tournament must be astronomical. After we spend a few minutes speculating about where the tournament may end up being shown – “Apple or someone like that? We’ll all be streaming,” he laughs – there comes an admission.

“I think I might be happy if I had to retire this year,” to which I mutter in my head: “Surely not, Jiffy.” The Six Nations without him? Who will declare “Numbers” when overlaps are there begging to be finished off.

“I wouldn’t want to retire, I love doing the commentary. I’m only doing the internationals, which I love. I have done about 27 years now, both codes. I used to be doing one rugby league game at one o’clock, staying in the same studio and then doing rugby union straight after. I would be thinking, ‘Is that the 22 or the 20-metre line?’. I had to focus. I’ve had a good innings. What will be, will be.”

Would the Six Nations really leave free-to-air? “TNT have made a big push,” he concedes, adding they will feel “very happy with their outcome” after showing the autumn Tests for the first time. The earlier reference to that famous grinning photo was deliberate because 12 years on, as Davies notes, “England against Wales could be my last game”.

The ramifications of taking the Six Nations off terrestrial TV in Wales now, with the national game in crisis, feel disastrous. And where to start with Wales, the issues facing the men’s team on the field or the concerns for the game in Wales as a whole. Let’s go with the latter.

Davies, reflecting on the time he and the great Eddie Butler started the Scrum V show on the BBC, has spoken to enough coaches and chairmen over the years to know there has always been a lack of trust between the Welsh Rugby Union and the four regions, largely over finances. Except now there is also little harmony or loyalty.

“Because Wales were doing so well, they overachieved really with the bunch of players they had, winning Grand Slams and championships. We were talking about it, it just papered over the cracks. We could see it coming. I asked about five or six years ago, ‘Where is the next fly-half in Wales? Where is the next full-back? The next 12? The props?’”

It comes down to a clear vision. Great sporting sides have it, bad sides do not. Wales, Davies believes, seem to lack a clear picture of where they are going off the field as much as on it, citing the Scottish Rugby Union’s move to appoint David Nucifora as performance director.

‘No leadership or vision’

The closure of the national academy, an institution Sam Warburton has hailed as pivotal to his development, has been cited by many as a disaster, an error the WRU is now trying to fix by selecting a group of up to 60 players of “National Interest” from age 15 to 24. Not forgetting the gap in physical conditioning between the regions and when players have spent long spells in camp with head coach Warren Gatland and Wales before big tournaments, or the ongoing debate over whether there are too many regions in the first place.

“I have friends whose kids play in age groups. You could see with the money and development going into the other countries, especially Italy. They were developing players for the future, and we were not,” Davies says. “[The WRU] blamed finances which always has a big part to play in it. But there has been no leadership or vision. Even now when you see [WRU chief executive] Abi Tierney saying we have challenged Warren Gatland to have a successful Six Nations, she has not said what “successful” is. What is it? Is it performance? Results? Developing players?”

What about Gatland himself? Astonishingly successful during his first reign considering the resources available, the question over whether he would stay in his role as head coach hung over the autumn. Davies wonders if the right players are still available to Wales who can fit into Gatland’s template. The departure of attack coach Alex King weeks before the start of the Six Nations is worth noting.

“I still can’t see the pattern of play which is our style,” Davies says. “The only thing I see at the moment is we go two phases, the stand-off, whoever he is, goes back in the pocket and we try and do the aerial battle, which we haven’t won. Gatland is going to go with big centres, big ball-carrying players, but we haven’t got those. It is not good any more chucking those players down the middle like Jamie Roberts. You have to have a little bit of creativity, dummy runners, taking players off people. I just want to find what the pattern is.”

After 12 consecutive losses and a callow side being thrashed at home by Australia and South Africa by a combined score of 32-97, the mood post-autumn when it came to Gatland’s position seemed to be, “Well, who could do any better with this lot?” Davies views things differently, questioning the WRU’s decision to reappoint Gatland given the lower level of talent on offer in Wales.

“Was bringing Warren back the right decision? They needed to look at the players they had in the regions. I think that maybe was their mistake. Maybe they should have had a more hands-on coach who goes to the regions, man-manages players and brings them through. Was Warren the right coach for the players we have? Or do we bring someone else in? I think we can do better and nurture some of the players and maybe look at a different style of play.”

So, reverting back to that earlier point, what exactly would be a successful Six Nations for Wales? A single win? Davies reels off the fixtures and only Rome on February 8 offers any hope, not forgetting that Italy comprehensively defeated Wales in Cardiff last year. “It’s very unlikely that you are going to win in Paris [on Friday], even if they play badly and we play out of our skin. Scotland up at Murrayfield are going to be good. England are not far off being a very good side and Ireland are too strong for us.”

Grimly, that seems like a fair assessment. “One result? It’s sad really when you look at it like that,” he reflects. If this is the end for Jiffy, then Wales have to give him at least one victory to go out on.