Maestro and the amateurs
WALES LEGEND SHANE WILLIAMS SET FOR FINAL CARDIFF FLOURISH
NINE cars drive past the Amman United clubhouse in the space of 10 minutes and all beep their horn when they catch sight of hometown hero Shane Williams.
‘That one was Tony,’ laughs Williams. ‘ He’s one of our tight-head props. He works for the police.’ The pair will be teammates tomorrow when Williams — once named the best player in the world — returns to the Principality Stadium.
He has dusted off his boots and is hoping to tear up the Cardiff turf in the National Bowl final with the village club he joined as a nine-year-old.
‘ I can’t wait,’ he says. ‘ My brother Dean is on the opposite wing to me and my brother-in-law Gavin Lewis is full-back.
‘ Everyone else is probably related somehow, knowing the Amman Valley! Most of us went to the primary school together.
‘We’ve got policemen, factory workers, plumbers, all walks of life, really. A bunch of misfits! It was never a big employment hub after the mines closed down but we work hard and we play hard. We’ll certainly be playing hard this weekend.’
A few things have changed since Williams made his first appearance for the juniors.
The Post Office has shut down and there is a life- size mural of Williams in Lions kit on the front of the period clubhouse, where miners met after their shifts.
‘As time has passed, shops have closed and pubs have closed, but the rugby club just keeps going,’ says Williams. ‘It’s smack bang in the artery, the heart of the community. It’s where we had school discos as kids and got carried home after our first pint.
‘What you see is what you get. Rugby’s a religion here. I live two miles up the road and if you went up the road and knocked on every door, they’d all be avid Amman supporters. We’ve sold 700 tickets for this game and only 2,000 people live here. There’s eight coaches of supporters driving to Cardiff in the morning — including mum and dad.’
It is six years since Williams retired from Test rugby at the Millennium Stadium, where he scored in the final minute of Wales’s 24-18 defeat by Australia. He turned down a night in Cardiff in favour of his familiar West Walian surroundings. ‘I said “so long” to the game and came back to the Amman clubhouse,’ says Williams. ‘The likes of Alun Wyn Jones, Paul James, Huw Bennett and a few others made the trek over and we had a good night. It started here and it finished here.
‘Caerphilly (Sunday’s opponents) will be a bit different. Australia had James O’Connor, Will Genia, David Pocock, but I’m sure this game will be just as difficult.
‘I’ve been retired for three years and the old oak clock has moved on a little bit. I don’t take the hits as well as I used to!
‘Someone head-butted me in the semi-final and left a hairline fracture on my jaw. Welcome to division three rugby! I was eating through a straw for two days.’
Now 40, Williams has played six games for Amman United this season. Training is twice a week and the squad regularly convene in the clubhouse for £2.50 pints of Dragon’s Heart. Inside is a shrine to Williams — adorned with photographs and dated red jerseys.
There are dusty newspaper cuttings on the wall, celebrating the working- class boy who became the best in the world.
‘Williams steps into the limelight’ and ‘How a bet on a young Shane Williams came up trumps’. The latter being a story of how his father, Mike, put a £25 bet on his son to become Wales’s top try scorer at odds of 2,000-1.
The winger scored 60 tries in 91 Tests but with zero to his name for the amateur side, he is unlikely to be a bolter for Warren Gatland’s Lions squad.
‘We’ve got 40 players and 30 of them have scored tries but Shane hasn’t!’ said brother Dean, a plumbing engineer.
‘He’s still faster than me! We’d never played rugby together until this season and it’s something we always wanted to do.
‘As kids we were on different teams in the park. It would usually end up in a fight, which he always won, then we’d be back home to share a bath!
‘After I’ve played with Shane at the Principality, we’ll have a couple of pints and we can retire.’