Shane Williams

Shane Williams

Full name	Shane Mark Williams
Date of birth	26 February 1977 (1977-02-26)
Place of birth	Morriston, Swansea, Wales
Height	1.70 m (5 ft 7 in)
Weight	80 kg (12 st 8 lb)
School	Amman Valley School
Rugby union career
Playing career
Position	Wing Scrum-half
Amateur clubs
Years	Club / team
	Amman United
Professional / senior clubs
Years	Club / team	Caps	(points)
1998–2003 2003–	Neath Ospreys	81 126	(223) (276)
correct as of 12:07, 7 November 2010 (UTC).
National team(s)
Years	Club / team	Caps	(points)
2000–2011 2005, 2009	Wales British and Irish Lions	87 4	(295) (10)
correct as of 20:14, 03 Dec 2011 (UTC).

Shane Mark Williams (born 26 February 1977) is a Welsh former international rugby union player who plays as a wing for the Ospreys and who can also play scrum-half. Williams is the record try scorer for the Wales national team and he is third on the international list of leading Rugby union Test try scorers behind Daisuke Ohata and David Campese. He is Wales' most capped winger.

In 2008, Williams was selected as the IRB International Player of the Year.

Williams is well known for his side-step, acceleration and his ability to find open space through opposition defence. He has been described as one of the most exciting wingers in the world.

Since his retirement from international rugby, Williams commenced work as a presenter on S4C's Six Nations rugby programme Y Clwb Rygbi Rhyngwladol.

Early life

Williams was born in Morriston in Swansea, but grew up in Glanaman in the Amman Valley. He picked up his first rugby ball while still in primary school, and was always small for his age, even going into secondary school at Amman Valley Comprehensive School (now Ysgol Dyffryn Aman). Told that he was too small to play rugby, Williams took up football instead, playing for Cwmamman United A.F.C.; in his first appearance for the club's junior team, Williams had to play in goal as no one else would volunteer to take the position. Williams' former junior football coach, Alun Rees, remembers him as a "superb goalkeeper", but notes that he could also play outfield. Williams played for Cwmamman United up to the senior level, while only playing rugby sporadically, and admits that, at the time, football was "[his] main sport". However, on the day of Cwmamman United's cup final, Williams was invited to play rugby with his friends at Amman United RFC; Amman United ended up winning by 82 points, with Williams scoring five tries.

Club career

Williams started his junior career as a scrum-half at Amman United he joined Neath as a second-choice scrum-half. However, it became apparent to Lyn Jones, Neath's then-coach, that Williams simply could not be left out of the side, and placed him on the right wing, opposite Delme Williams on the left. However, Delme Williams had shown a tendency not to kick and chase the ball, resulting in him and Shane swapping wings.

When it came to Williams signing his first professional contract with Neath, Amman United demanded a transfer fee for him, resulting in negotiations between the two clubs. Nevertheless, Williams eventually signed for Neath on a contract worth approximately £7,500 per annum, equivalent to his wage at the local Job Centre where he was working part-time.

International career

Williams was awarded his first cap by Graham Henry as a replacement against France in 1999–2000 Six Nations season, he was three weeks short of his 23rd birthday and weighed a little over 11 stone. He scored in his first full start for Wales with a try against Italy in the same Six Nations tournament and went on to score a total of 60 international tries (58 for Wales, 2 for the British and Irish Lions). Williams is also Wales' record try scorer in Six Nations Championships with 22 and Wales' record try scorer in Rugby World Cups with 10. Colin Charvis holds the Welsh record for tries by a forward with 22. In addition, he has also scored 6 tries for the Lions in tour games, of which, five were in one game.

He suffered a series of hamstring injuries in 2002 and did not often figure in Steve Hansen's squad. He considered quitting rugby entirely at this time.

He was part of the Grand Slam-winning Wales side in the 2005 Six Nations championship, where he scored tries against Italy, Scotland, and most famously England, the try that helped them achieve a famous 11–9 victory that got their campaign underway. He was then selected to the British and Irish Lions for their 2005 New Zealand tour. On 28 June, he equalled a single-game Lions record by scoring five tries in a tour match against Manawatu.

In the summer of 2007, Williams underwent elbow and shoulder surgery and missed the tour of Australia. However, he did return in time to play the last World Cup warm up game against France. During the 2007 Rugby World Cup, Williams earned his 50th cap against Japan. He scored two tries in that match, temporarily putting him on top of the 2007 World Cup try-scoring table with a total of five tries. The tries also put him above Ieuan Evans on the all-time Wales try scoring list, trailing only Gareth Thomas at that time. His try against France in their Six Nations decider on 15 March 2008 placed him joint eighth on the all-time Test try scoring list with Thomas, and surpassed Thomas on the all-time Wales try scoring list.

Williams scores a try for the Ospreys away to Ulster in April 2010.

He participated in a second Grand Slam win with Wales in the 2008 Six Nations Championship, when he scored tries against Scotland (twice), Italy (twice), Ireland, and France, breaking the record on the all-time Wales try scoring list in the championship's final match against France, when he scored his 41st try for Wales. This try resulted in his father Mark Williams winning £25,000 from a £50 bet placed almost 10 years previously that he'd one day become Wales' leading try scorer. His performances in the Six Nations led to him being named the player of the tournament.

On 23 November 2008, Williams became the first Welshman to be named IRB International Player of the Year, beating fellow Welshman Ryan Jones, New Zealand's Dan Carter, Scotland captain Mike Blair, and Italy captain Sergio Parisse [2]

On 7 December 2008, he won the BBC Welsh Sports Personality Of The Year, seeing off the competition of Tom James, David Roberts, Geraint Thomas and runners up Joe Calzaghe and Nicole Cooke.

In his first 2009 Six Nations game against Scotland he scored his 45th test try to take him above Jeff Wilson on the all-time leading try scorers list to sixth. During the game he received an ankle injury and was taken off the pitch. Following the injury he missed the next game against England, but would start for Wales' third game against France. In the fourth game of the championship, Williams scored Wales' opening try against Italy to take himself to equal fifth on the all-time leading try scorers list.

On 21 April 2009, Williams was named as a member of the British and Irish Lions for the 2009 tour to South Africa. Williams missed out on a starting place in the first two Tests but was selected to play in the final Test where he produced a man-of-the-match winning performance and scored two tries that contributed to the 28–9 victory over the Springboks.

On 21 November 2009, Williams scored two tries in Wales' comfortable 33–16 win over Argentina in the Millennium Stadium, taking his international try tally to 50.

On 13 February 2010, Williams scored the winning try against Scotland in Cardiff, completing a remarkable Welsh comeback. Wales trailed 24–14 with 4 minutes remaining in the game, and Williams' try on the last play of the game took the final score to 31–24 to Wales. It was Williams' 49th international try for Wales (51st in all internationals), and his 18th in the Six Nations, equalling the record by a Welshman in the tournament, held by Gareth Edwards.

On 26 February 2010, Williams again scored in the final minute in the 26–20 loss to France. This score handed him sole position of tries scored by a Welshman in the tournament with 19 tries for his country. He would subsequently increase his Six Nations tally to 22 tries.

Shane stated that he would retire from playing for Wales after the 2011 Rugby World Cup but later decided to play against Australia on 3 December 2011. Williams' last match ended in him scoring a final try to round off his glittering career. He scored his 58th try with the very last touch of his international career in overtime as the game finished 24-18 to Australia. He said that wearing the Welsh jersey was the "best feeling ever".

Personal life

In August 2005, a holiday to Cyprus made the headlines when Williams was erroneously held over an assault. The police lost his passport; his lawyer described the whole incident as a "total stitch-up"; and on his return to Wales, Williams suggested that he should have spent his holiday in Tenby instead.

On 23 December 2005, Williams married his childhood sweetheart Gail Branwen Lacey, whom he had met at Amman Valley school 14 years previously, at Twyn Church in Garnant. The couple's first daughter, Georgie, was born on 7 November 2006. Williams and Lacey went on to have a son, Carter, born 11 July 2009.

Points record

Statistics as of 3 May 2008, taken from the official site of the Ospreys, as of the 19 October 2011 taken from the official site of the Welsh Rugby Union and the British & Irish Lions.

Team	Games	Tries	Conversions	Penalties	Drop Goals	Total Points
Ospreys	101	48	0	0	2	246
Wales	85	58	0	0	0	290
British and Irish Lions Tests	4	2	0	0	0	10
British and Irish Lions Tour Matches	7	6	0	0	0	30
Total	187	114	0	0	2	576

Television appearances

Williams has appeared numerous times in S4C Welsh language Television programmes. He was green gunged with swimmer David Davies in the Crawfr children's television programme and in 2011 has appeared in Clwb Rygbi Shane.

In February 2012, Williams joined the team of BBC Wales pundits, covering the Six Nations.

References

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_union/7745073.stm

External links

• Shane Williams' details on the Ospreys website
• Wales profile
• Scrum.com's page
• Yahoo Sports page

Awards
Preceded by Bryan Habana	IRB International Player of the Year 2008	Succeeded by Richie McCaw
Preceded by Joe Calzaghe	BBC Wales Sports Personality of the Year 2008	Succeeded by Ryan Giggs