Williams wants to shine with proud dad ringside
JOHNNY Williams hopes to be given the chance to finally wear the red of Wales in front of his family this autumn.
Williams, 24, left England last year to throw his lot in with the Scarlets. Three months after making his regional debut the powerful inside centre was lining up for Wales against Georgia – however each of his caps so far has come behind closed doors.
He impressed in his first three Wales games last season, scoring a try in their narrow defeat to England at Parc y Scarlets. Now he is chomping at the bit to run out in front of 74,000 people at the Principality Stadium.
Having recovered from a shoulder injury, Williams has been named in Wayne
Pivac’s squad to face New Zealand, South Africa, Fiji, and Australia.
“All I can do is hope that I play against the All Blacks,” Williams said. “My dad used to take me to the Principality Stadium as a kid and the reason I wanted to be on the pitch was to make them all proud.
“The dream was to play international rugby in front of my family and thousands of fans,” he said. “My family haven’t seen me play live for Wales so hopefully I can pick up a few more caps in the autumn so they can. That’s the biggest thing for me – it would be a dream come true. I’ll be both nervous and excited but that’s why I want to be there. I want to challenge myself.”
On facing up to the likes of Anton Lienert-Brown, Samu Kerevi, Semi Radradra and Damian De Allende, Williams added: “They are world class players playing for world class teams. We need to test ourselves and see where we are at. Last autumn we were off it but going into the Six Nations we picked it back up and brought the trophy home. It’s a real good benchmark to see where we are at as a team both as an international side and individually. It’ll be a good challenge for us and I’m looking forward to it.”
Having represented England in an uncapped game against the Barbarians in 2019 Williams was diagnosed with testicular cancer. After winning that battle, he decided to leave Newcastle to join the Scarlets and hasn’t looked back.
On his rapid rise to the Test arena he added: “I didn’t think things would happen as fast as they did coming out of lockdown and straight into the Scarlets, and then the Welsh squad. Getting my first cap was special, as was winning the Six Nations, but it all happened in a flash. Being injured can be a good time to reflect and get some downtime in the off season.”