Scott Williams

Rugby World Cup hat-tricks are hard to come by, but Scott Williams commemorated his first start for Wales with a three-try salvo against Namibia in an 81-7 win in New Plymouth at the 2011 tournament in New Zealand. He followed that up with a try in equally impressive 66-0 win over Fiji. He has since gone on to win more than 50 caps in the Welsh midfield and been part of the 2012 Grand Slam campaigns and the 2013 Six Nations title winning side.

His early rugby days were spent at Whitland and Coleg Sir Gar and he won caps for Wales at U16, 18 and 20 levels. He joined Llanelli before progressing into the senior Scarlets set-up in 2009. His full international debut came against the Barbarians at the age of 20 in June, 2011, when he replaced Gavin Henson. At that stage he had a mere 20 games for the Scarlets under his belt, but three good performances in the World Cup warm-up matches that summer earned him a ticket on the plane to the 2011 global showpiece.

His Six Nations debut came as a replacement in a home win over Scotland on 12 February, 2012, and 13 days later he followed up with a spectacular try-scoring act off the bench in the Triple Crown victory over England at Twickenham. The game was tied at 12-12 with 76 minutes showing on the clock when he ripped the ball out of Courtney Lawes’ arms after a tackle on half-way before breaking clear, kicking ahead, and regathering to score the match-winning try.

He scored back-to-back tries against Ireland and Italy in the 2015 Six Nations, captained Wales against Ireland at the Millennium Stadium in a 35-21 defeat on 8 August, and then secured selection for the 2015 World Cup. He started in the win over Uruguay, and then another famous victory over England, but he was forced off just before half time at Twickenham with a serious knee injury that ruled him out of the rest of the tournament.

From 5 November 5, 2016, to 16 June, 2017, he lined-up from the start in nine more internationals and in the autumn of 2017 he scored twice in two weeks against New Zealand and South Africa respectively. His try against the Springboks helped Wales to a 24-22 win. He started six matches for Wales in 2018, but missed the 2019 Six Nations Grand Slam campaign due to a back injury.

During an 11-year stint at the Scarlets he helped them to win the Guinness PRO12 title against Munster in Dublin in 2017 and then started in the PRO14 final defeat against Leinster a year later. He moved to the Ospreys for the 2018/19 season.