‘I WAS VERY ILL, BUT I HAD TO BE PART OF THAT GAME’

tine, barely ate a thing and didn’t train or speak to anyone in the buildup to the game.

He then spent the half-time interval in the toilet as the bug took hold again. But in between he somehow overcame those issues on the day to run rings around New Zealand, announcing himself to the world with a stellar performance and going on to emerge as a Wales great.

Amman Valley hero Williams outlined the drama of the day, and how his whole career was on the line, ahead of S4C’s re-run of the match on Friday evening.

He says: “Steve Hansen wanted people who were a bit bigger than me. So I was out of the squad for about a year, but then I started playing well again for Neath, so Steve decided to take me to the World Cup as

Steve Hansen relaxes by the pool at the team hotel during Wales’s 2003 World Cup campaign. a scrum-half.

“I’d been waiting for a chance to play in a game like this, I’d been selected, and then I fell unwell.

“So the whole week, I hadn’t trained, hadn’t seen anyone, I was in quarantine. Dan King would come and slide a pizza under the door for me, and that was the only time I’d speak to anyone.

“I lost around a stone that week, but I wanted to play in that game so much. I really thought that unless I played against New Zealand, and played well, that I would never play for Wales again.

“At the time, I thought this game was the most important in my career. It was a make-or-break game for a lot of us.”

With Wales already through to the quarter-finals, Hansen in effect picked a second-string side for the final group game against the World Cup favourites and rested many of his main players. New Zealand scored a try after just two minutes, and bagged a fourth before the halfhour mark was even up. A humiliation was on the cards.

But valiant Wales battled back to give them a real fright, scoring four tries of their own with Williams himself racing over. Even though New Zealand emerged 53-37 victors, it was a thrilling Welsh performance that pointed the way forward for future success under Mike Ruddock. Williams went on to play 87 times for Wales, four for the Lions and just five years on was named the best player in the world.

But he reiterates: “I still believe if I hadn’t played in that game, I would never have played for Wales again. That game changed everything for me.”

Studying the match for S4C, he said: “Watching this game, after seeing New Zealand score a fourth on 29 minutes, I haven’t seen a team play