Williams’ eyes on the prize before regional career takes different turn
SCOTT Williams admits it will be a strange feeling when he jumps into his car to head to the Ospreys’ training base in Llandarcy this summer.
After more than a decade with his home region, the Wales centre will play his final home match for the Scarlets this evening, a mouthwatering semi-final qualifier against South African side the Cheetahs.
It is sure to be another emotional night for a player who hails from Newcastle Emlyn and came through the Scarlets academy.
Williams is as home-grown as they come, a player weaned on Sosban Fach and Stradey Park.
But next season he will be playing in the colours of the arch rivals from across the Loughor.
“It will be strange when I jump in the car to go to training with the Ospreys for the first time, but I haven’t thought too much about it, hopefully there’s still a few games left with the Scarlets,” he said.
“There are obviously loads of highlights from my time here, most of them recently.
“The La Rochelle quarter-final was the best atmosphere I have experienced here and I am sure a lot of the boys will agree with me.
“Winning the league last year; that was one of the best feelings I have had, being in that changing room after the game in Dublin, there is no better feeling than winning something with the boys you spend every day with.
“That is the motivation for the boys over the next couple of weeks.”
Williams made his Scarlets debut in a pre-season friendly against Neath in 2009, an 18-year-old who was already turning heads with his performances for Llanelli RFC and Wales Under-18s.
PARC Y SCARLETS 6.35pm SCARLETS v CHEETAHS
During his career, he has dealt in the spectacular, a player with a knack of scoring crucial tries at crucial moments.
On the international stage, he is unlikely to ever surpass that Twickenham Triple Crown match-winner in 2012, but there have been big moments too in Scarlets colours.
There were tries against Toulon and Saracens in Europe, and, maybe the best of the lot, a sensational effort against Harlequins at The Stoop – a step from halfway, a fend, dummy and then searing pace taking him to the posts.
He will be missed at Parc y Scarlets.
Williams is popular with the fans and has grown impressively into a respected leader on and off the field, but Wayne Pivac and his coaching team were always going to find it difficult to accommodate three international centres of the calibre of Williams, Jonathan Davies and Hadleigh Parkes.
Williams also says it as it is.
He felt the Scarlets were good enough to reach a first European Champions Cup final this season, hence the bitter disappointment at the manner of their semi-final loss to Leinster a couple of weeks ago.
He also firmly believes the squad can overcome that setback and replicate their stunning league triumph of last season.
“We were obviously disappointed with the result in Dublin, in fairness to Leinster they played very well and sometimes you have to take your hat off to a side when that happens,” he added.
“But we feel we are better than that.
“We are the defending champions. We want to go on and win it again this season.”
Williams received his official farewell, along with the likes of Tadhg Beirne, John Barclay and soon-to-be Ospreys team-mate Aled Davies, following the win over Glasgow last month – the region’s last home match of the regular season.
Tomorrow, they will be defending a 20-match unbeaten run on home soil, a proud record stretching back to the opening weekend of last season, but are taking nothing for granted against a dangerous Cheetahs side who have proven plenty of sceptics wrong in their debut campaign in the northern hemisphere.
“It was a bit of a weird feeling the Glasgow game because in my mind I felt we had another one to go,” added Williams.
“We have managed to secure a home quarter-final. Our home record is very good and teams find it tough to win here.
“Hopefully we can get another big crowd; we have had amazing support all season, the best since we moved from Stradey.
“The Cheetahs have definitely grown through the season. They have a lot of great attacking players and a lot of threats we have to deal with. They like to play a similar game to us, like to throw the ball about, it should be a great game.”
Skipper Ken Owens is restored to the Scarlets’ starting line-up as one of three personnel changes from last weekend’s Judgement Day victory over the Dragons.
Owens replaces Ryan Elias, while Scotland’s John Barclay comes in for Will Boyde at No.8.
Lewis Rawlins and Aussie Steve Cummins retain their place in the second row, meaning Tadhg Beirne continues at blindside with Aaron Shingler named on a replacements’ bench that also includes Wales prop Wyn Jones, who has recovered from a hamstring tear picked up against Ireland during the Six Nations.
Behind the scrum, Pivac has made just one change with a fit-again Tom Prydie, who has overcome an ankle injury suffered against Leinster in February, preferred on the wing to Ioan Nicholas.
The Cheetahs are looking forward to attempting to end the Scarlets’ unbeaten run, though.
“It’s quite exciting to hear that the support is there and everybody’s excited about the game,” said coach Rory Duncan.
“It’s obviously a special game for us, I don’t think there’s any moving away from the guys realising that they’re in the play-offs and it’s exciting for us to be there.”
“With regards to the Scarlets and the way they’ve performed, they’re obviously a quality outfit and they’ve got some great players in their lineup. We’ve obviously done our prep and our homework in terms of this game as we have with every other where we’ve faced quality players.”
Springbok Johan Goosen will be starting at fly-half and Niel Marais moves to centre. Clinton Swart will be providing cover on the bench.
No.8 Uzair Cassiem and full-back Clayton Blommetjies, who are both set to switch from the Cheetahs to Scarlets next season, are named in the XV, though the latter faces a fitness test.
Scarlets: L Halfpenny; T Prydie, S Williams, H Parkes, S Evans; R Patchell, G Davies; R Evans, K Owens (capt), S Lee, L Rawlins, S Cummins, T Beirne, J Barclay, James Davies. Reps: R Elias, W Jones, W Kruger, A Shingler, W Boyde, J Evans, D Jones, S Hughes.
Cheetahs: C Bommetjies; W Small-Smith, F Venter (capt), N Marais, S Maxwane; J Goosen, T Meyer; O Nche, T van Jaarsveld, J Coetzee, C Wegner, R Bernardo, P Schoeman, U Cassiem, O Mohoje. Reps: J du Toit, C Marais, T Botha, R Hugo, H Venter, Z Mkhabela, C Swart, L Greeff.
Referee: George Clancy (IRFU).