Martyn Williams

Martyn Williams

Personal information
Full name	Martyn Elwyn Williams
Date of birth	1 September 1975 (1975-09-01) (age 36)
Place of birth	Pontypridd, Wales
Height	6 ft 1 in (1.85 m)
Weight	15 st 10 lb (100 kg)
Nickname(s)	Nugget
Club information
Position(s)	Flanker
Current club	Cardiff Blues
Senior clubs*
Years	Club	Apps (points)
–1999 1999–2003 2003–	Pontypridd RFC Cardiff RFC Cardiff Blues	97 (75)
Representative teams**
1996– 2001, 2009	Wales British and Irish Lions	99 (73) 4 (0)
* Professional club appearances and points counted for domestic first grade only. ** Representative team caps and points correct as of 16:55, 20 Aug 2011 (UTC).

Martyn Elwyn Williams (born 1 September 1975) is a Welsh international rugby union player. A flanker, he plays for Cardiff Blues and the Wales national rugby union team as an open-side flanker. He is Wales' most-capped forward.

Club career

Williams, height 6 ft 1 in (1.85 m), weight 15 st 10 lb (100 kg),^[1] played club rugby for Pontypridd, with whom he won the 1996-7 Welsh league, then moved to Cardiff in 1999. He captained Cardiff from 2002 until 2005, when Rhys Williams took over the role.

In the Heineken Cup semi final against Leicester Tigers on 3 May 2009, Williams missed a crucial kick in the penalty shootout after the game had finished level after extra time, allowing Jordan Crane to step up and score the winning kick. It was the first time that a rugby union match had been decided in a shootout.

International career

Wales

After gaining international caps at every junior level he won his first Wales A cap in 1996 and then made the senior side against the Barbarians the same year. His first appearance in the Five Nations Championship was against England in 1998. He captained Wales for the first time against Scotland at Murrayfield in 2003.

He won his 50th Welsh cap against England in the first match of the 2005 Six Nations Championship and played a prominent part in Wales' Grand Slam that year, notably scoring two tries early in the second half against France in Paris when Wales had appeared to be heading for defeat. He was named RBS Six Nations player of the Championship (2005).

Williams announced his retirement from international rugby on 1 October 2007, following Wales' early exit from the 2007 Rugby World Cup only to make a surprise decision to return to international action when he was recalled by new Wales head coach Warren Gatland in January 2008. He was a key member of Wales Grand Slam winning side of 2008, and was considered by many to be one of the best players in the tournament.

Williams currently holds the Welsh record for most appearances in the Five and Six Nations championships, surpassing Gareth Edwards' record of 45 appearances in the third round of the 2009 Six Nations.^[2]

British and Irish Lions

Williams was selected for the British and Irish Lions tours to Australia in 2001 and to New Zealand in 2005. He was also named as part of Ian McGeechan's 37 man British & Irish Lions squad to tour South Africa in the summer of 2009.

Personal life

He played centre half for the Welsh YMCA U16 soccer side.^[3] He stated his intentions to play for the Cardiff Blues for another couple of seasons before taking up a career in commercial banking.^[4]

Williams is affiliated with the charity Cancer Care Cymru.

Publications

He re-released his autobiography Magnificent Seven in August 2008 after coming out of international retirement.

External links

• Cardiff Blues profile
• Pontypridd profile
• Wales profile

References

1. ^ BBC Wales Raise Your Game – Martyn Williams
2. ^ BBC – Williams to set new Wales record
3. ^ SkySports Player Profile
4. ^ RBS Six Nations Website

Persondata
Name	Williams, Martyn
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1 September 1975
Place of birth	Pontypridd, Wales
Date of death
Place of death