How Robin kick-started a revolution with his round-the-corner style
ROBIN Williams probably did more to revolutionise the art of goalkicking than anyone. In doing so he began a trend that put the toe-end ‘torpedo’ specialists out of business.
From his debut in the senior game as a teenager during the late Sixties, Williams began perfecting a more reliable means of bisecting the posts, the round-the-corner kicking brought to the international stage by Barry John at round about the same time.
Williams did it to devastating effect, never more so than when Pontypool won the unofficial Welsh club title in 1974-75. Llanelli wing Andy Hill had held the country’s club record for most points in one season at 362. Williams obliterated it with 517, raising the bar by almost 50 per cent.
He kicked 177 goals in 40 matches for ‘Pooler’ that season, ensuring that opponents across the land paid a heavy price for their failure to cope with the ‘Viet Gwent’ featuring Terry Cobner and the unholy front row alliance of Charlie Faulkner, Bobby Windsor and Graham Price.
As evidence that there was more to his game than place-kicking, Williams scored 16 tries that season. Born in the Monmouthshire village of Govilon, he also played for Cardiff and Newport, rejoining Pontypool after a season in Italy with Brescia.
As lethal with the left foot as he was with the right, Williams inspired new generations to follow his example. Nobody acquired the two-footed skill to greater effect than former Newbridge, Newport, Sale and Wales fly-half Paul Turner.
“Being able to kick with either foot made Robin Williams the hero of all aspiring goalkickers,” said Turner, saddened to learn of Williams’ death. “And in those days before kicking tees you had to make your own pile of mud and dig the kicks out.
“I was ten years old and a ballboy at Newbridge when I began working on my weaker foot. Playing a lot of soccer helped and there were times when I got confused as to which was the stronger foot.
“I’d use my left foot from the right hand side of the pitch and the right one from the left. A lot of young players ought to look at mastering that skill. Robin showed us all the way and I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone land as many monster goals as he did.”
Williams played for Wales B twice, his path to the Test team blocked by the misfortune of having been born within 12 months of JPR. In blazing a trail for generations of prodigious goalkickers, his namesake proved himself the longest of long-distance specialists.
He could kick them off either foot from inside his own half, something not even Jonny Wilkinson could claim to match.
Robin Williams died in Cornwall earlier this month at the age of 68.