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WILLIAMS IS IN GOOD ‘NICK’
NICK WILLIAMS
Nick Williams’ laughing eyes help make him a
compelling, easy companion, he embraces life on
and off the rugby field, and meets successes and
disappointments with a winning sense of balance.
“I think it’s the Polynesian blood. We like to enjoy
life and all it offers, and as far as I’m concerned as
a professional rugby player that has got me ‘round
the block’ a bit.
“I was blessed with certain physical attributes I
suppose, and I am so fortunate to be part of a
squad to which I am committed and which affords
me the opportunity to do some things which
might be a little different,” he says, smiling at the
unspoken understanding that those charging, one-
handed carries may not strictly have been part of
the game plan.
“Look, I like to think that I am a good team player,
and it is the team and how it plays and what it wins
that we all buy into. Different players bring so many
different skills and talents to this Ulster squad, and
we all want each other to shine.
“We are lucky in that our coaches want us to
express ourselves, they don’t want us to suppress
the best each of us has to offer. That doesn’t mean
we don’t have strategies and planned things to do
in certain situations, we certainly do, but in the heat
of a game, if a chance appears to do something
we’re encouraged to do that.”
Williams is a storming Number 8, who, ball in one
hand, the other fending off flailing, failing tacklers,
can really get the Kingspan fans on their feet.
“Yeah, it might look high-risk at times, and people
say it gets the supporters going, but that’s not what
I want, I want to see the team capitalise and get our
best players on the front foot.
“I don’t need to tell anyone who’s watched us over
the years that sometimes it comes off, sometimes
it doesn’t. But ever since I was a kid starting to play
rugby I’ve always thought that the quickest way to
the line is to run straight!”
One of the genuine characters of the modern
professional game, Nick Williams, at 32, retains
the ambition and fire which made him a Junior
All Black, ‘capped’ by the New Zealand Under 21
side, and a dynamic figure in the colours of North
Harbour and the Blues.
In his mid-20s he joined Munster for a two-year
spell, which yielded four typically rumbustious
tries but only sporadic appearances for the that
Province.
In June 2012 he was approached by Ulster and
he honestly believes the environment at Kingspan
Stadium has allowed him to flourish.
“I arrived to join a good panel of players, and I think
the coaches and my new team-mates took time to
adapt to me as a person and my style of play, there
were some teething problems, but I was always
very happy to be part of the project.
“And there have been ‘ups’, and there have been
some ‘downs’, and you learn from those. This is
a squad which really deserves and should win
trophies in the PRO12 and in Europe.
“We’ve always had good coaching and
management at Ulster, but Less Kiss joining us
has been like a breath of fresh air, something we
probably needed to add a little energy to things,
he says.
Looking back at the calendar year Williams feels
that coming up just short in the PRO12, with the
incentive of a home semi-final and Final beckoning,
might have been quite different if “we’d picked up
another win away from home, or taken a point or
two more from some games.”
He was suspended for the PRO12 run-in, but he
hopes he still did his ‘bit’ for the squad.
“Yes, I was on the naughty step I’m afraid, and of
course I regret that and it’s only human to think that
on some occasions your reputation goes before
you, but it is what it is.
“I did all I could in the last few weeks of the season
to help for those games leading to the games with
Glasgow which didn’t go as we wanted, as we all
know. I helped with the analysis, and was generally,
I hope, the happy bloke around the dressing room.
“But we didn’t get the trophy we so wanted, as a
group of management and players we felt so flat,
and I know the fans were really down.
“But we’re midway through the season now – I
always think of what we can do tomorrow, not what
went wrong in the past – and we are putting the
building blocks together for a team which will be
successful for a long, long time.
“In most people’s eyes, perhaps, I don’t play what might be called a
normal type of rugby, but it’s always been like that!”