IT WAS HORRIBLE TO BE STUCK IN SARRIES STORM
Liam Williams on sudden end to his stint with shamed club ...and the personal toll it took
‘It’s irrelevant to me. I still have my trophies’
LIAM WILLIAMS is here to explain the human side to the Saracens salary cap saga. The Wales and Lions full-back is the highest profile player to leave the disgraced Premiership club, after Saracens were hammered by a £ 5.36million fine and 105-point deduction for breaking financial rules.
It was confirmed last week that Williams will re-join the Scarlets after securing early release from the relegated English and European champions.
Williams, 28, has not played this season after damaging ankle ligaments in the week of the World Cup semi-final. But he is fit for Wales’s trip to Twickenham in the Six Nations this Saturday. Now Williams has opened up to
Sportsmail about a horrible four months in which he was in the eye of a storm. ‘It was a tough time and quite abrupt how it all ended,’ he says. ‘Two weeks before the Six Nations, I had to put my house on the market and find a new one here in Wales quickly.
‘That was the worst part. I called my girlfriend Sophie as soon as I had to make the decision, and she was upset.
‘She was a bit scared about moving house. I said, “Leave it to me”. We thought we had six months left in London to spend time with our friends before the end of the season. That was the hardest part.’
Williams had intended to go back to Wales this summer, regardless of Saracens’ relegation. ‘My early move had nothing to do with the issues at Saracens. It was to do with the injury.
‘I was going to be signed for a year but only play a few games, so I said, “I’m happy to go back”, and home being home, it was easier. I’m not getting any younger, so it was time to come home, maybe start a family and pass knowledge on to the younger guys. Hopefully Scarlets can go and win the Challenge Cup.
‘In the Six Nations, I wouldn’t have been with Sarries anyway. There would have been a handful of games left afterwards, so I understand their reasoning for letting me go back to Wales.’
Williams has now moved into his new home and is a Scarlet again. His return is a huge boost to Welsh rugby. He — like the rest of the Sarries players — is not at fault for the murky financial dealings at the club. And Williams does not feel bitter.
Nor does he believe his three trophy wins in north London are tainted. ‘I don’t know what was going on behind the scenes, or how and how much people were getting paid,’ he says.
‘It’s totally irrelevant to me. I still have my trophies, we still won the league twice and the Champions Cup.
‘It was amazing — the ethos, what they stand for. I became a better player, playing week-in week- out with their Lions and other guys at Saracens. The
European Cup win against Leinster was the best. I had never won that.
‘I did what I set out to do, and had a great two and a half years living in London. I made some life-long friends and we’ll always keep in touch whether it’s via WhatsApp, FaceTime or playing them on Call of Duty online.
‘I speak to the boys all the time. Saracens is not a great place to be at the moment, but it is what it is. They’re going down to the Championship and I’m sure they have a good enough squad to get them back up.’ Amid all the domestic dramas, Williams has been on the long road to recovery from injury.
Days before Wales’s semi-final defeat by South Africa at the World Cup, he was tackled by Ryan Elias and James Davies in training. The collision snapped two of Williams’s ankle ligaments and tore another.
‘It was s***, but life goes on,’ he says of missing the semi-final in Japan, which he watched on crutches before flying home in October for surgery.
‘I’m not a very good watcher. At training I’ve been running on my
tod for the past few weeks, which is tough.’
Looking at Welsh rugby’s new era from the stands, he has seen what head coach Wayne Pivac is trying to implement — having been coached by the New Zealander at the Scarlets — and believes it will take time for it all to gel. ‘We are still learning how the coaches coach, and they are learning how we operate,’ he explains.
At Twickenham, Williams will face his former Saracens teammates Jamie George, Maro Itoje, Owen Farrell, Elliot Daly,
George Kruis and Ben Earl. He cannot wait.
‘I used to go up to Penlan Rugby Club near Swansea with my dad and brother to watch games and there was a different feeling for the England-Wales game,’ he says.
‘It’s the biggest one for us here in Wales, isn’t it? The boys are excited. Everybody is on edge.’
That is where Williams likes it; out of the frying pan of salary cap politics and into the fire of the Six Nations.
‘It’s lovely to be back,’ he says. ‘This is what I get paid to do!’