One in all solely two Welshmen with a core contract within the GB Sevens squad, Williams is at present recovering from shoulder surgical procedure. He missed out on Hong Kong within the first spherical final month and is already counting down the times earlier than he can be part of countryman Morgan Williams within the newly fashioned outfit.
“I sustained the damage within the Commonwealth Video games in July in Birmingham,” mentioned Williams. “It’s similar to a shoulder dislocation and it’s referred to as a Laterjet process the place they repair up the shoulder.
“It’s roughly a 20-week restoration course of and I’m about 15 weeks accomplished so there’s one of the best a part of a month to go so I’m aiming for the New Zealand and Australia tournaments that are on the finish of January.
“I can’t wait as a result of it’s been a bit onerous watching the boys, travelling, and enjoying away. Whereas they’re away, I’m clearly right here coaching again on the Vale doing my rehab so I’m away from the workforce atmosphere which is tough.”
Morgan Williams is certainly one of 11 gamers coming back from the Hong Kong match the place Nice Britain picked up 5 factors to seek out themselves exterior of the highest 10 after the primary spherical.
Initially from North Wales, he made his debut on the World Sequence in spherical eight of the 2015/16 season, in Singapore.
Within the fourth spherical of the 2016/17 collection in Sydney, he grew to become the primary Welsh participant to attain a hat-trick towards Fiji since Rhys Jones achieved the accolade 4 years earlier.
He performed in Vancouver and Edmonton for Workforce GB within the 2021 collection and likewise performed within the first two legs of the 2021-22 HSBC Sevens World Sequence earlier than Scotland, England and Wales reformed for the 2022/23 world collection.
Tom Williams was born in Shrewsbury, and grew up in Montgomery in Mid Wales on Welsh-English border.
He attended RGC Academy and went to highschool at Rydal Penrhos the place he did his A ranges. Enjoying for Wales U18s on the time he bought picked up by the Ospreys the place he made his debut for the area in 2017.
He joined Ayrshire Bulls in 2021 to play his membership rugby in Scotland however returned to the abbreviated type of the sport later within the 12 months when returning to the World Sequence with Nice Britain Sevens.
Within the first two legs of the 2021/22 HSBC Sevens World Sequence, he performed for GB earlier than returning to Wales for the third leg when the 4 residence nations reverted again to their particular person international locations.
“Once I was on the Ospreys I used to be out and in of the sevens programme for various years – final 12 months was my first full 12 months with Wales sevens as a contracted sevens participant,” defined Tom Williams who has additionally performed for Wales U20s.
Tom Williams in full flight for GB Sevens final season
“The pure development was to attempt to get into the GB Sevens squad for this season and trying to the longer term for probably the Olympics in two years’ time is the tip aim by way of sevens in the mean time.”
Each gamers see themselves as flagbearers for the Welsh trigger as they hope their type on the worldwide stage will encourage future generations of gamers to place their palms up for choice.
“That’s undoubtedly a part of our position now – there are solely two of us from Wales – hopefully we will encourage extra gamers to take up sevens,” mentioned Tom.
“It’s a rising recreation and it’s most likely not the place it must be or doesn’t have the profile it might have however with one other Olympics cycle hopefully that may proceed to develop as I believe Rio in 2016 gave an actual huge increase to Sevens so hopefully the Paris Olympics can do the identical.”
Within the quick time period Williams can be specializing in his namesake as he prepares to tackle South Africa, Australia and Kenya in Pool A in Dubai.
“He has adopted a really comparable path to me. We had been in the identical age grade groups in North Wales, we had been in RGC and the Ospreys as nicely,” defined Tom.
“The primary time we performed collectively was North Wales U12s or U13s I believe it was, so we’ve got performed with one another right through since we had been younger. It’s fairly cool being in the identical programme now even on this stage in our late 20s and within the GB Sevens programme collectively.”
HSBC World Rugby Sevens Sequence 2023 – Dubai
Fri 02 Dec 2022 – Pool A
South Africa v Nice Britain KO 07:34
Australia v Nice Britain KO 11.42
Kenya v Nice Britain KO 16
