Williams shows steel in bid for more silverware
LIAM WILLIAMS is out to make rugby history — while sticking it to his English mates along the way. If Wales win the World Cup in Japan this November the Saracens full-back will become the first player to win all four major rugby trophies in a year. Winning 22 of the 23 matches he played in the 2018-19 season, Williams lifted the Premiership title, European Cup and won a Six Nations Grand Slam with Wales. ‘Three trophies!’ the 28-year-old reflected with a grin. ‘It’s nearly been the perfect year! I am really looking forward to the World Cup now — you never know, there might be a fourth trophy.’ Not bad for the scaffolder who used to earn £130 a week at the ‘dirty, stinking’ Port Talbot steelworks. ‘I don’t think I’ll ever go back to scaffolding now!’ Williams laughs. ‘As soon as I played my first game for Wales I wasn’t a scaffolder any more! It’s such hard work. ‘I took the medals back to my mum, she keeps them safe. I haven’t got that many, so hopefully I can get another one this year.’ On the journey to Japan — where Williams enjoyed his first Wales tour in 2013 — the full-back will face his Sarries team-mates twice in two weeks, when Warren Gatland’s side play England in warm-up matches this Sunday and next Saturday. And having beaten Owen Farrell’s England in Cardiff during the Six Nations, Williams took the bragging rights back to Saracens in the spring. ‘I did give them a bit of s*** after the last one, they just tell me to shut up!’ he adds. ‘I love playing against them, and with them. It’s always a great game with England, the rivalry is huge and that’s the best part of it. ‘We will smash each other for 80 minutes and then have a pint afterwards.’ Fourteen Tests unbeaten, Wales are the form nation in the world going into these preparatory fixtures. Having only played three times at the last World Cup before injury struck, Williams has relished the chance to put in the hard yards at the gruelling training camps in Switzerland, and back home in Glamorgan. ‘That’s what I love, you know you’re going to hell and back but you’re with your best mates so that helps,’ he says. ‘This is what I missed four years ago — not being with the boys. ‘That’s what builds a team. I want to be one of the best in the world and play in World Cups.’ The first aim has already been achieved and if he stays fit Williams may complete his perfect year.