Williams aims to make amazing 2019 even better
vQuarter-final, Sunday 8.15am
LIAM WILLIAMS took one look at the 20 journalists and photographers waiting for him in Wales’ seaside hotel outside Beppu yesterday and swore.
For a stammerer, this was uncomfortable territory – more uncomfortable by far than facing France in a World Cup quarter-final on Sunday.
He sat down and took a deep breath, then talked fluently of World Cup dreams, knockout blows, and naked spas.
The time he has put in with a speech therapist in London, since his move to Saracens, has paid remarkable dividends.
And if he has come on in leaps and bounds off the field, then the same is true on it. Eighteen months ago, Warren Gatland (right) wondered whether he was too emotionally immature to handle Test rugby. But there is no doubt now who will wear the No.15 jersey for Wales’ biggest game in four years.
“I was with Scarlets for six years and leaving Wales to go and play up in London was great,” said Williams. “That has taught me a lot about myself, on and off the rugby pitch. Maybe I’ve matured a bit. Hopefully, it shows on the pitch.”
Williams stands on the verge of completing a uniquely successful calendar year. An English and European champion with his club, he is also a Six Nations Grand Slammer with his country.
A World Cup on top of all that would be plain greedy.
“If I win this one, I’m done,” he said. “That’s just a joke. I’m not retiring. But there’s only one thing we think we can do, and that is win it.
“Over the past 18 months, we’ve won the Six Nations and been away on a couple of camps, and it has all brought us in to one huge team. That has been great for Wales, and hopefully it is going to put us in really good stead.
“I wouldn’t say we’ve got the easy route to the World Cup, but we’ve got France next and we need to beat them to be looking at the bigger picture. I think we can go on and win it.” Confirmation yesterday that Dan Biggar and Jonathan Davies are back in training after injuries suffered against Fiji last week stokes Welsh optimism. Williams is particularly relieved Biggar is over his concussion, having been the unwitting cause of it. “The ball was in the middle of the two of us and he is not one to back out, so I went up for it and unfortunately caught him on the way down – well in the air and on the way down!” said Williams. “He said after the World Cup, it is his turn to knock me out.”
Wales’ team hotel has a huge Hello Kitty in the lobby, while in the seaside resort of Beppu itself, hypnotised pensioners monopolise deafening pachinko slot arcades. “I love the place,” said Williams of Japan. “I love the people. I love the naked spas – that’s a really good laugh. I love everything about it – it’s just a bit hot!” GOLF superstar Nick Faldo won a £100,000 golfing jackpot at Wentworth – and promptly gave away the lot to children’s charities.
He earned the cash – the biggest first prize in European golf – by beating Ian Woosnam on the final green of the 36-hole final to capture the World Match Play crown.
Talking about his gesture, he said: ‘‘It’s just something I want to do. I have spent a lot of time with some very sick kids this year.’’