There are few people better placed to pass judgment on the precariousness of life as a rugby player in the UK than the Ospreys fly-half Owen Williams. In a little over six months he has broken his thumb, been made redundant, stepped straight into the frying pan that is Welsh regional rugby, become a father and made his first international start, during the Six Nations. Most players go their whole careers experiencing less.
Williams can be forgiven for sounding a little weary as he reflects on the events of this season. On the endless days spent recovering from his injury, watching the number of Worcester players training together dwindle as the lucky ones picked up offers at other clubs.
On joining the Ospreys as injury cover and producing the sort of form to make Warren Gatland take note, all the while seeing teammates driven to the brink by uncertainty over their futures brought out by the dispute that came to a head in the week of Wales against England – when Williams wore the national No 10 jersey for the first time.
“There are still some really good players who don’t have jobs. Rugby is the worst I’ve seen it since I’ve been a professional player,” says Williams.
The 31-year-old has been professional for 12 years, with two separate spells in Wales, one in Japan and three in England, with Gloucester, Leicester and Worcester. “It’s just unfortunate with the global landscape of rugby and the lack of money, there’s a lot of players on the market. I’ve never seen it like this in professional rugby.”
If that paints a bleak picture of the British game, Williams has nothing but gratitude for the Ospreys picking him up after he had demonstrated his fitness playing for the Barbarians in the autumn.
For Gatland, too, given he had gone more than five years without a Wales appearance before the Six Nations. “It has probably been the most difficult season of my career, but I’ve got a job, I’m enjoying it at the Ospreys, I’m healthy, I’m in a good spot and my family is healthy. If you had told me six months ago that [starting against England] would have happened I’d have laughed at you.”
Williams is on a short-term deal with the Ospreys as injury cover – he hopes to have the longer-term future sorted out in the next couple of weeks – but the plight of Worcester gives him a unique perspective inside the dressing room as he has gone “out of the frying pan and into the fire”.
“That’s the exact phrase I used in meetings,” he says. “I’ve been out of this for seven or eight seasons because I’ve been across the border. I’ve heard of things going on but not really experienced it first-hand. It has been messy and it’s an accumulation of things that have gone on for years. Boys are at the end of their tether. People don’t really see the stress behind the scenes. Boys looking for jobs now and they’re not going to get paid in a couple of months. It’s ruthless.
“There’s a lot of dark humour that goes on. If you don’t laugh, you cry. It is really stressful for some people and it’s not nice to see. Some boys are starting to sort contracts at the minute, so there is a positive, but there is less funding for the regions so there will be a lot of boys missing out. Cardiff have come out and publicly said they are in a bad spot, so there will be a lot of good players without jobs and it’s sad to see.”
Fatherhood has also given Williams a “kick up the backside”, providing him with a “new why”, and, though he was not taking his career for granted before this season, the events of the past few months have given him a greater appreciation. He also reserves special praise for the Worcester Women’s strength and conditioning coach, Josie Symonds, and the physiotherapist Lucy Berry for “keeping him on the straight and narrow” in the aftermath of the Warriors’ demise.
“As the weeks went on there were less and less boys using the gym and the training facilities and motivation was quite difficult at that time,” says Williams. “It was tough. Wasps went under around the same time, there were players from the previous year still looking for new gigs, so there were over 100 players on the market looking for jobs and there are only so many spots available. You’re almost waiting for players to get injured so you can go as injury cover, it’s not ideal.
“I was grateful that somebody gave me an opportunity and I just wanted to not take it for granted and grab it with both hands. I feel like I’ve done that, I feel like I’ve given the Ospreys something back.”
It seems all the more impressive that this season the Ospreys have reached the knockout stages of the Champions Cup for the first time since 2010. They have done so the hard way – beating Montpellier at home and away before a dramatic victory at Leicester – and have been rewarded with a trip to the three-times champions Saracens on Sunday afternoon.
“We’ve nothing to lose really. They’re at home, they’ve got a lot of history in the competition, so the pressure is on them. We’ve got to give it a good shot and hopefully smash and grab and get out of there,” says Williams.
“We’ve got a good squad here, a lot of belief, players who dig in for each other. You work hard for each other and good things happen.”
