Bear’s learnt from the school of hard knocks
HAVING had his ‘world ended’ by being dropped from the Harlequins academy at just 14, Bear Williams says he hopes to use his skills in Jiu-Jitsu to break into the Cornish Pirates first team.
Williams – a two-time National Junior champion in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu – signed for Cornish in July 2021 and made just two appearances last season as he spent the majority of the campaign on loan to National 2 side Redruth.
Now, though, the 21-yearold back rower is relishing the opportunity of proving his worth to the Pirates and has been welcomed into the club with open arms.
“I absolutely loved it last season,” Williams told TRP. “I learned a lot being the young kid learning off all the older boys so it was awesome learning off experienced full-time professionals at a very high level. I was welcomed in really well, it’s a really tight group as well because the club is so far away from everyone.
“I want to keep learning and just keep progressing, I’d love to get some game time this season with Pirates. I just want to keep improving every part of my game. If I keep grafting and plugging away hopefully good things will happen.”
Williams attended the famous rugby school Cranleigh and played alongside current Harlequins players Hugh Tizard, Hayden Hyde and Oscar Beard.
He was let go by the Quins academy at the age of 14 but thanks to words of wisdom from his dad, he says the experience made him stronger.
“Cranleigh, it was a great school and the rugby there was awesome under our head coach Andy Houston,” he added. “There were a load of guys who went on to play professional rugby from our first XV.
“I was only at Quins a couple years when I was a junior from U13s and U14s and was let go before the U15s season. I thought my world had just ended but my dad came in with some great advice and said ‘this is where you need to start the graft if you really want this’.
“All I’ve ever wanted to do was to play rugby, so even though that was a setback growing up and it does stop a lot of lads progressing on, for me it drove me to show people what I’ve got.”
Jiu-Jitsu is very much still a big part of Williams’ life and he believes it has helped him progress in his rugby career.
“I started off playing rugby when I was five, but I didn’t like it,” he explained. “When my dad took me to Jiu-Jitsu, I loved it. When I started playing rugby again, I feel like I had the edge by being used to grappling and contact work from Jiu-Jitsu so tackling was my favourite thing. The contact area of Jiu-Jitsu moulds in well into rugby.”
In the past, a number of professional clubs have incorporated mixed martial arts into their training camps, including Eddie Jones’ England training sessions at Pennyhill Park.
Williams said: “Every single professional rugby team is always trying to find a way of to get an edge and learning a sport like Jiu-Jitsu, you learn how to wrestle, grapple, and learn so many different ways to take someone down and control them on the floor. Therefore, the transitional skills are huge.”