There was a lot wrong with the Cell C Sharks’ game when they lost for the second time to the DHL Stormers and the criticism that they too often play like individuals may not be too wide of the mark, but some of those individuals were outstanding.
Like Rohan Janse van Rensburg, who the visitors to DHL Stadium finally brought into the game in the second half. And Grant Williams.
The latter told us last week that he was looking forward to going home to see his family and to play in front of them. And the scrumhalf nearly did so as the man who almost single-handedly won a game that his team should never have come close to winning.
It was his brilliant weaving solo run through the normally excellent Stormers defence that gave his team a chance of pulling off what would have been a seismic come-from-behind victory.
The thing about the 25-year-old who was educated in Paarl is that he is now doing it almost every week. Meaning that opposition teams not only have to watch him like a hawk, they also should add five points to the opposition score before the game even starts, For he almost always gets through to score. Like he did the previous week against Ulster.
It wouldn’t be accurate to say Williams’s allround game is perfect. Those who punt him to be a starting Springbok overlook a poor kicking game that was responsible for the second Stormers try scored by Ben-Jason Dixon.
But with the blistering pace that he developed with the help of a Western Cape athletics coach during his downtime back home during his early days as a player at the Durban club College Rovers, he has the X-factor to be a match-winner at any level of the sport.