5′ 7″ and every inch a rugby superstar.
Shane Williams has been proving that small guys can make it in rugby ever since he was plucked from obscurity, playing for a team ‘stone’s throw from my house’ in the Welsh valleys. Spotted as a scrum-half, who harboured ambitions of playing football with Ryan Giggs, Williams was signed by Neath [soon to become Ospreys] and made his international debut 18 months later.
Williams went on to win two Grand Slams with Wales, appear in three World Cups, three Lions tours, score 60 tries in 91 Tests and win World Player of the Year in 2008.
We caught up with Williams to talk retirement, Six Nations, Irish rivalries, Warren Gatland pot-stirs and rumours of a return for his local team.
From Amman United to the British & Irish Lions
For me, it was just fun. I never took rugby seriously in school. I was told was too small which pretty much went through until my international career which was the story of my life. I played a lot of soccer in school… The village I’m from, if I had chosen football over rugby, my grandmother would have given me a hiding growing up. That’s the mindset I’ve got from where I’m from. I’d like to think I made the right choice
Still room in the game for the little guy?
I didn’t enjoy the physicality to be honest with you. It makes it difficult for you when you are conceding 20 or 30 kilograms to your opponents especially in the contact area… I certainly hope, and the neutrals will hope, that the smaller player can continue to survive in the game. I watched Craig Gilroy play for Ulster against the Dragons [on Sunday] and he did very well for a player who’s not the biggest. He’s quite evasive and quick on his feet. Stuart Hogg in Scotland is another one. These are the players that I hope we will continue to see.
A game obsessed with tactics and strength rather than individual brilliance
I played the game to beat defenders rather than run over the top of them. That was my philosophy. Anyone who can see me will know that was never going to happen. The game is changing. You still see the smaller players being successful. The game is changing. When I was selected, it was to beat defenders, work hard, find mis-matches and score tries. There doesn’t seem to be many tries scored at the moment.
Are you going to play for Amman United again?
My brother and my mates still play with Amman, at the club. With my house… I literally walk the dogs past the field every day. I made the mistake of telling someone before that I would love to go back and play with my brother and my mates again. Next thing you know, the local press have got it that I am playing that Saturday against Gorseinon, which is Leigh Halfpenny’s local club. Leigh then tweeted me and asked, ‘Are you playing on Saturday my boys?’
That is Wales for you. It is a gold fish bowl, far away from any sort of controversy. I would love to go back and play a charity match for them one day, and played alongside my brother. I have only done that once so if I could do it again, that would be great. No aspirations to get back down there and put my boots back on just yet.
Warren Gatland’s mind games
We all know Warren enjoys teasing the opposition, teasing the press, and so on. Sometimes it’s effective, sometimes it’s going to backfire. What the thinking behind it is, I really have no idea. As players we have a little giggle ourselves but as far as we’re concerned, we don’t need the pressure. We just want to go out there and play. What happens in the press is Warren, Shaun Edwards and Rob Howley’s baby really.
You’d always get [a fore-warning]. ‘Look. there might be something in the press that might ruffle a few feathers, don’t get involved in it guys, don’t worry about it’.
Then you’re thinking in training, ‘Right OK, once it doesn’t affect me and what I’m doing, I can just carry on with the game’.
Has Gatland got something else up his sleeve?
Sometimes games are won and lost in the war-room. Warren certainly knows Joe Schmidt is a good tactician. He has his work cut out, he really has. Man for man and physically, they’re very evenly matched. The strengths of both teams are very evenly managed. Sometimes it’s just a tactical arm wrestle and I think that’s going to be the case on Saturday.
Ireland have been the better team at tactically working teams out, choking teams, not only in the choke tackle, but they seem to be choking teams into submission at the moment and playing the style of rugby that suits Ireland. If Ireland manipulate Wales into playing the way Ireland want to play on Saturday, it’s going to be an easy Irish victory.
It makes for a great game. When you put the two teams together you have no idea who is going to win that game. There’s a lot of pressure on the likes of Johnny Sexton and Dan Biggar and obviously Rhys Webb and Conor Murray which I think is going to be a great match-up on Saturday. Whichever combination works the best will win the game.
How do you see Saturday’s game going?
Schmidt is one of the best tacticians I’ve certainly seen as a coach. What Ireland are doing at the moment is effective and is working, coming off a 10 game winning streak. If it’s not broke why fix it?
I’m sure Ireland’s tactics on the weekend will be to stop Ireland playing with any tempo, any go forward and prevent Wales’ backline from being effective.
*Williams is an Ambassador for Guinness and features in the ‘Made of More’ campaign as an icon of rugby who has triumphed over adversity and overcome the odds. You can check out all the Made of More videos here. Rugby fans that check in to their local pub, using the Guinness Plus app, will be in with a chance of winning a VIP trip to Ireland’s Six Nations finalé against Scotland.
