A LIONS TOUR, A NEW CLUB AND A NEW HOUSE... LIAM
IT really isn’t done in this day and age — a rugby player happily interrupting his summer break to chat with a journalist, especially when the said player has just completed a tour for the ages with the British and Irish Lions.
Oh, and he’s also in the middle of moving house.
Short of being trussed up and shoved in the boot of a car by blokes in balaclavas shouting “don’t say a word”, there could hardly have been a less favourable time for Liam Williams to give an interview.
Which says a lot about the former scaffolder whose career is on a high after his exploits with the Lions.
Saracens’ brand-new acquisition from the Scarlets took time out from relocating to Finchley, in North London, to return a call and spend 15 minutes chatting. Interviews are not really his idea of fun — he prefers to spend his time limelightfree rather than have his thoughts and pictures plastered all over the internet and various newspapers — but he is as grounded as can be and always willing to help out.
So let’s cut to the chase: with the benefit of hindsight, how was the Lions tour for him?
“It was unbelievable, the experience of a lifetime,” he said. “You meet and play alongside and against brilliant players from different countries and it meant a huge amount to be involved. “I flew out to New Zealand not really expecting to be in the Test side at full-back, because they had Leigh Halfpenny and Stuart Hogg as specialist No. 15s and both of those are excellent players. “So for me to start in all three Tests was fantastic, the high point of my career so far.”
Life is rarely the same again for rugby stars after successful campaigns. Jason Leonard once related how he went to the bank after England’s World Cup triumph in 2003 and received a standing ovation from staff and other customers.
Williams has yet to applauded out of Barclays, but there has been no shortage of back-slapping since he returned home last month. “It’s been crazy,” he said. “Millions of people have taken the trouble to wish me well and say how much they enjoyed the tour and how the team played.
“Everywhere I go, people have been coming on to me to talk.
“I went to the shops in North London with the missus the other day and a man came over to chat about the Lions and say how much he was looking forward to seeing me play for Saracens. I guess the Lions increases your profile.”
It also helps if you have the skill and vision to run from 90 metres out and trigger a debate about whether Warren Gatland’s class of 2017 had scored the greatest Lions try.
Williams instigated the move that led to Sean O’Brien’s touchdown after collecting a pass from Anthony Watson deep in his own 22 in the first Test. A kick to touch seemed the only sane option, but instinct barged sanity clean off the road and a sidestep that evoked memories of Phil Bennett left Kieran Read hopelessly bamboozled.
A lateral run across field still didn’t erase all doubt that Williams