LIAM WILLIAMS: THEY SAID I HAD NO CHANCE BUT LOOK AT ME NOW!
Only six years ago he was a £130 a week labourer... now Liam Williams, fresh from creating possibly the greatest Lions try ever, is ready to rock at Saracens
LIFE at Liam Williams’s plush new home in north London seems slightly more idyllic than his formative days spent working as a labourer at the Port Talbot blast furnace for £130 a week. His kitchen is cluttered with unopened flatpack furniture but, for a touch of home comfort, his girlfriend Sophie has been making apple pie using the fruit from their garden.
‘Unloading all these boxes has been a bit like pulling the metal tubes off the trucks on site at 6am,’ jokes Williams, who grafted in the family scaffolding business until just before his 20th birthday.
Saturdays were worth double pay so he would clock off at midday following the morning shift with his brother, Steven, and then play for his local rugby club in the Welsh village of Waunarlwydd. Rugby was an afterthought.
‘I was never picked up by an academy,’ says Williams, 26. ‘So I just went to work. Nothing was spoon-fed. The Ospreys said I’d never be good enough. They said, “Nah, I don’t think he’s going to make it”. That’s what they said...’
He pauses, stammers for a second or two, and then finds his words. ‘That’s what they said... but look at me now.’
It is on the rugby pitch that Williams roars loudest. He was given his break with Llanelli RFC and quickly rose through the ranks with the Scarlets and Wales. Now he is the Premiership’s most exciting arrival: a full-back/ winger, who is often compared with Seventies legend JPR Williams, and moved to Saracens after the summer Lions tour.
‘The Lions was the trip of a lifetime,’ he says. ‘I never expected to start all three Tests at full-back — we had Leigh Halfpenny and Stuart Hogg — then it was more or less a stag-do at the end.
‘We had a kangaroo court. Rory Best was the judge, wearing a wig, and a couple of boys were dressed up as girls. Peter O’Mahony, Dan Cole, Joe Marler. I probably shouldn’t go into too much detail...’
As the architect of possibly the greatest Lions try in history, scored in the first Test against the All Blacks two months ago, he celebrated with a break at Dubai’s £400-anight Atlantis spa for a taste of his new high life.
‘Everybody’s been on to me about that try,’ he says. ‘People come up to me, shake my hand and say, “Liam. That run. That try”. They say it was like that famous BaaBaas try from the Seventies.
‘All I heard after Ant Watson passed me the ball was, “Man on! He’s coming!” The plan was to kick long but then I saw Kieran Read out the corner of my eye.
‘Suddenly I thought “s**t”, stepped him, saw a bit of space and just went for it. Fair play to Jon Davies and Elliot Daly on the outside. Foxy [Davies] stepped in and out, then Sean O’Brien popped up to score.’
Williams is in his comfort zone as he talks through his Lions memories, sat on the sofa beneath his proudly framed Scarlets jersey, but occasionally pauses to find his voice in a rare interview.
‘I don’t do any TV work,’ he says, hesitantly. ’I don’t like it. I have this stammer and once I feel under pressure I just can’t get my words out. I couldn’t do that live on TV. I’d just end up swearing. When I feel under pressure it starts to get a bit worse. I’ve always had it — my older brother had it — and it sort of goes through phases of good and bad. It’s fine when I’ve had a beer or two!
‘When I’m on the pitch it goes. It just comes out. If I shout, it’s fine.
‘I’ve been meaning to sort it out but it’s just finding the time. It would enhance my profile but I just want to play rugby so I don’t really care, although I would like...a new Range Rover!’
Now Williams is at a club where Kelly Brown faced similar challenges, which he overcame impeccably. He has already been on a pre-season tour to Bermuda with the European champions and, as a break from decorating the house, has been learning their extensive playbook.
‘It’s totally different to what I’m used to, but you have to adapt or you’ll be the odd one out,’ he says. ‘What’s struck me is how all the staff are unbelievably good at their specific roles. All the lads and coaches are really sound; texting me asking if I need a hand with the house or anything like that. My target is to add something to a club that’s already been winning trophies.
‘We had an incredible week in Bermuda. We let loose at the end. We had a party boat with
a walk-the-plank — I jumped off it and d lost my toenail. We had a booze cruise sort of thing. Now I’ve got to do a dance for myy initiation!’
Moving to Saracens was a no-brainer. He has joined the world’s strongest club side — tipped to win the Premiership — and his decision was sealed by the chance to live with his girlfriend.
‘Soph lived down here before and we’d d been doing the long-distance thing, a lot ot of trains back and forth from Wales,’ saysays Williams. ‘We’ve been together three years now and it all just seemed to fit. She’s a model and there aren’t too many jobs in modelling back home in Wales!’
Williams has humour and humility — peeling apples from his back yard to share around before offering a lift back to the station — and revels in tales of debauchery with his friends back in Swansea.
What about the ‘Janette’ tattoo on his right ankle?
‘Oh, that’s [former Llanelli No10] Steven Shingler’s mum’s name,’ he laughs. ‘I had that doned during a boys’ trip to Ayia Napa becausebec it was better than having my girlfriend’sfr name on my backside like the restr of the group!’ Now the bow-legged Welshman — one of the best counter-attackers in the world — is settling into the ‘London Life’, mixing Saracens training with WestW End musicals and meals out. ‘I’ve never lived away from my mum andan dad so it’s a little bit daunting,’ he says.say ‘That’s life. My house in Swansea was about 300 yards from them. I’ll go home as much as I can, see my niece and nephew, but it just seemed like time for me to get out of the Swansea and Wales goldfish bowl. ‘I loved being at the Turks [Llanelli Scarlets], it was the only thing I knew, but this opportunity came up. They’ve been on fire so it’s exciting. I hadn’t won anything for six years with the Scarlets but in my last game we won the b***** Pro12! We were on the up then it was like, “Oh, s**t, now I’m going”. It was an unbelievable end, emotional, but now it’s time for a new challenge.’