HIGH HOPES FOR TEENAGE STAR
THE former US athlete Mary Decker reckoned she was a has-been by the age of 16.
It seems a safe bet that such words won’t ever tumble from the mouth of Harry Williams.
He’s the Ipswich schoolboy who signed a five-year contract with the Scarlets at 16, an age when his favoured mode of transport was just as likely to have been a skateboard as a Suzuki.
Colchester United Football Club were also said to be interested in him.
And he was a good enough tennis player to be ranked third-best in his age group in England.
But he opted to pursue a rugby career with the Scarlets after being on the radar of Northampton Saints.
Little has been heard of him since he committed to the West Walians, with Williams still having another year at St Joseph’s boarding school in Ipswich.
But he gave an interview to The
Rugby Paper over the weekend when he explained why he’d decided to pitch up in Welsh rugby, saying: “It’s a weird one.
“I was born in Colchester and played rugby with the local side there from the age of four, but my dad’s Welsh and playing for Wales has always been my dream, so when the Scarlets offered me a contract it just made a lot of sense.
“My mum and dad split up when I was about 12 and my dad now lives in Pontardawe in the Swansea Valley, so even though Northampton wanted to keep me and they’d been hugely supportive of me when I was on the English pathway, I just couldn’t turn down Scarlets.
“I’m still at St Joseph’s boarding school in Ipswich, which is where
Lewis Ludlam went, and I’ve got another year there, but I played for Scarlets U18s all last season and had good exposure to training with their first team, so I’ll move next year and aim for my first-team debut.” Such is the confidence of youth. But the word on the street is that Williams has genuine promise.
How good is he? “Technically, he’s very good,” said a source who has followed his career over the past 18 months.
“He has skill, an eye for a gap and isn’t short of self-belief. He’s also conscientious and works hard, which matters.
“He wants to play for the Scarlets and for Wales, but he realises that to achieve those goals he has a huge amount of graft in front of him.
“But he’s a willing kid and he won’t fail for lack of effort.”
Williams looked up to Dwayne Peel and notes, with Gareth Davies filling the No. 9 shirt now, how the role has become a “very prestigious” one at the Scarlets.
Since pitching up with the Llanellibased region, he has also received help from Kieran Hardy, a young player who is on the up himself out west.
The Scarlets boast a history of fine scrum-halves, with Onllwyn Brace, Chico Hopkins, Selwyn Williams, Mark Douglas, Jonathan Griffiths, Peel, Mike Phillips, Rupert Moon, Guy Easterby, Gareth Davies, Rhodri Williams and Aled Davies included among their number.
Gareth Davies and Hardy are helping to maintain such a tradition today.
But if all goes well the kid from East Anglia, who describes himself as “a little bit chopsy”, will get a shot at the position at some point in the future.
“If he keeps going as he is, there’s no reason why he shouldn’t make it,” the source told us. “He’s only 17, but he’s a very talented boy.”