EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW

SHANE WILLIAMS

SHANE’S WORLD

Wales’ Shane Williams is regarded as the most exciting rugby player on the planet and is sure to light up the 2009 Six Nations

IRB World Player of the Year and Rugby Writers’ Club Player of the Year are among the awards you have picked up recently. Was the turning point the Wales game against the All Blacks in 2003?
“We actually lost that match 53-37. When I walked off that field I felt I had proved to people I belonged at this level. That game turned around my whole career. For Wales it wasn’t about the result: it was about showing the rugby world that we were back after a couple of years in the doldrums; it was about winning back our self-respect and proving we could still play the game.”

But a few years ago you were on the verge of packing it all in?
“I was doing my hamstrings all the time. I would get over it, come back and in a few games it would go again. It did my head in, literally. When you’re a professional sportsman and your fitness is down, your confidence follows on a downward spiral, and I hit rock bottom. I was out of the Welsh picture, my confidence was totally shot and I questioned myself every time I played, every time I got hold of the ball. It’s mad seeing as how it’s all turned out and it does sometimes spook me when I think back to how

close I came to quitting. Sometimes I have the odd flashback and think, ‘what would I be doing now if I had called it a day?’ I was determined to prove people wrong and I’ve worked very hard to get where I am. It hasn’t just happened overnight. I’d like to think I can fight above my weight, so the culmination of this season is almost sticking up the finger to the people who didn’t believe in me.”

Welsh players have enjoyed a higher profile thanks to two recent Grand Slams. Who are the characters in the team in various categories? �

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