Wales rugby legend Gerald Davies says he is "dumbstruck" after being given a knighthood in the King's New Year's Honours for 2025.

The 79-year-old played 46 times for Wales between 1966 and 1978 and is still one of only a small group of Welsh players to have won three Grand Slams during their career. More recently, Davies, who also made five appearances for the Lions during the 1968 and 1971 tours, served as the President of the Welsh Rugby Union, holding the post from 2019 until last year.

The legendary wing has now been knighted for services to his sport and for voluntary and charitable service in Wales, and he admits that he was stunned to receive the honour.

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“I feel very emotional about it," he told the PA news agency. "I am surprised by it. Words are really quite inadequate to describe it. It comes out of the blue. I was dumbstruck in many ways, but you don’t achieve these things on your own.”

Davies' former Wales teammate Alan Phillips has also been named among the honourees, having been given an MBE for services to rugby union and charity in Wales. Nicknamed 'Thumper', the 70-year-old former hooker scored a remarkable 162 tries in 481 appearances for Cardiff and went on to win 18 caps for Wales and tour South Africa with the Lions in 1980.

More recently, he held the position of Team Manager with Wales from 2002 all the way through to 2019, when he was succeeded by Martyn Williams. In the role, Phillips worked with six different head coaches and helped Wales to three Grand Slam wins in 2005, 2008 and 2012.

Andrew Vaughan John, the chair of Aberavon RFC, has also been awarded an MBE for his services to charity and business.

Other Welsh sporting stars to be honoured include Team GB's new cycling golden girl Emma Finucane, who has rounded off an incredible 2024 by being awarded an MBE. The 22-year-old from Carmarthen became just the second British woman to win three medals at one Olympic Games as she sealed a gold and two bronzes in the velodrome in Paris.

Also named among the MBE recipients is Paralympic shot putter Sabrina Fortune, who won gold and broke her own world record in Paris. The 27-year-old from Mold is acknowledged by her national governing body as the world's leading women's F20 shot putter, having also won the world title three times.