Grant Williams was very much jumping in at the deep end when he started at scrumhalf for the Springboks against Italy in Gqeberha at the weekend, but fortunately he proved he can swim by turning in a five-star performance.
The 28-year-old product of Paarl Gimnasium, who was plucked a few years out of the relative obscurity of Durban club rugby, where he was playing for College Rovers, by the Sharks, has had a troublesome couple of months. He admitted in interviews with journalists in Gqeberha last week that there were times in his three months where he was sidelined with a neck injury that just didn’t go away, that it felt touch and go whether he’d play again.
His absence was felt by the Sharks during the business end of the Vodacom United Rugby Championship season, where they struggled with their attacking game. The impact that Williams, with his pace and ability to break any defence apart with his sniping breaks, could have had was clear to see at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium in a game that he capped with the first Bok try.
The self-effacing scrumhalf, who has the pace of a wing and showed it in that try-scoring moment, felt that in scoring it, he denied fullback Willie le Roux what would have been a try in the veteran’s 100th game. But the score calmed nerves that had been playing with him all through the buildup week.
'A LOT OF NERVES'
“I wish I could have played for the Sharks first to ease my way back,” said Williams.
“There were a lot of nerves this week after a frustrating three months, but I’m happy we got the win, and personally, to be able to play again. There was obviously a little rust, but I’m looking forward to the next couple of weeks.
“The try calmed me down. It was great to score it, even though it was Willie’s try that I took (Le Roux was also at hand to take the final pass). My mindset last week was all about getting on the field and ensuring that I nail the detail, but I’m happy for the team and about the result.”
Williams attributed his relatively seamless return to the team to the expert and meticulous planning of coach Rassie Erasmus, something that he said shone through when the team was reduced to 14 men following the red card shown to Jasper Wiese for a head-butt.
“It’s always difficult to get a red card, but if you know Coach Rassie, there’s always a plan. So we were well prepared for a card, which happened to be the case in the match.”
And while he loves his combination with the equally attack minded Manie Libbok, who had a good game outside him at flyhalf, he reckons Erasmus’ planning will make it possible for him to fit in with any of the players who make up an impressive array of potentials, and you can throw Damian Willemse into that mix.
“It is always special to play with Manie and we have a great relationship, but at the same time, it doesn’t matter who I play alongside. There’s a plan for every game. This week, the strategy was to try a few things, and as you saw, it worked,” he said.
It will be interesting to see what Erasmus does when it comes to scrumhalf in the final test of the initial phase of four games against Australia on Saturday. Erasmus started with Morne van den Berg in the first two games, the non-cap fixture against the Barbarians in Cape Town and the first test of the year against Italy. He was arguably better against the Barbarians in the wet weather game at DHL Stadium than he was in Pretoria, where he won the man of the match award but was maybe understandably a little scrappy around the fringes of a breakdown, which was rendered a mess by the numbers that Italy threw into the contact area.
Referee Andrew Brace was strict on both teams in a game that saw 27 penalties awarded, 16 against Italy and 11 against the Boks, but it had the effect of presenting Williams with much cleaner ball than the Emirates Lions scrumhalf had to contend with the previous week. Veteran double World Cup winner Faf de Klerk played in the second half in Pretoria, where generally it was felt the Bomb Squad, of which he was a part, was disappointing, but must be due now for a start so the Georgia game could be his opportunity to let it be known he still deserves to be in the mix for the first-choice role.
The man who challenged De Klerk for that role for much of last season was Jaden Hendrikse, but he was left out of the squad and given a list of areas to work on after a poor season with the Sharks.