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Williams revelling in being one of the Pumas' main men

rugby20 June 2019 14:08| © SuperSport
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Devon Williams © Gallo Images

For someone who has played for DHL Western Province, the Stormers and the Blitzboks – and had the beating of sub-10-second South Africa sprinter Henricho Bruintjies when he was in school – Devon Williams could be forgiven for resenting ending up in an offbeat place like Nelspruit.

But the Pumas fullback has no such regrets when it comes to the Mpumalanga town, which has allowed him to grow and find himself as a man, not to mention marry his wife of almost two years, Candice, a feat he still celebrates by having the date written as his WhatsApp profile status.

Speaking ahead of the Pumas' SuperSport Rugby Challenge final against the Tafel Lager Griquas – the second in succession against the same opponents – the 27-year-old from Stellenbosch came across a contented man with how his life has turned out.

"I'm more settled in my life at the Pumas," he began. "When I was at Province I was always in a party mode so it never occurred to me that I would play Super Rugby for the Stormers or make the SA Sevens squad. In a sense I could say it (not having his contract renewed by Province) was my own fault because I had a golden opportunity there.

"When I came to the Pumas I became more settled and worked hard from scratch, got married and I have a coach backing me. I've got that balance in my life and now I can go and express my talent."

Expressing his talent is something of an understatement for what Williams, whose fleetness of foot and mind tends to place him at the hub of the Pumas' attacks, does.

A former sprinter who ran 10.40sec and 20.80sec for the sprints as an under-17 athlete, Williams was one of the attacking thorns in the Boland Cavaliers' side in their semifinal in Nelspruit, cutting them up with his raids from fullback.

Williams, who was voted the Province under-21 side's best back in 2013 in a team teeming with the talent of the likes of Sikhumbuzo Notshe, Dillyn Leyds, Craig Barry, Tim Swiel and Pat Howard, has been instrumental to the Pumas going unbeaten in this competition since 2017.

"It's a privilege and an honour ... not many people can say they've been to back-to-back finals, and here we are with a chance to win two back-to-back finals. It's a tribute to the hard work of the players and the management, and how things are done here at the Pumas."

With the Pumas having won their last 19 games in the competition, and the desire to win back-to-back, Williams said there was no pressure from thoughts of losing the one that counts at the Saldanha Sports Grounds against Griquas on Sunday.

"In the team we always talk about not putting pressure on ourselves and taking it game by game. There'll always be pressure on the players themselves, where you always want to perform your best for the team, knowing you're in the final. But from a squad and management perspective we're calm."

Williams admits to not having been particularly keen on joining the Pumas when they came knocking after his short-lived stay with the Blitzboks and the loss of his contract with Province, having decided to continue with his Environmental Management studies at Stellenbosch at the insistence of his mother, a Cape Town senior prosecutor not exactly used to losing arguments.

"At first I wanted to finish my studies but then I thought going to a small union would be a 'lekker' challenge and another stepping stone," he explained. "The stepping stone is now the real thing as we're going for things like back-to-back finals, showing that we're not a small union that can be written off."

Having given up athletics to focus on rugby because the latter was more in his blood, Williams does admit to a pang of regret, given how there is now money and recognition in sprinting in South Africa.

The game against Griquas pits the Pumas not only against a team they beat in last year's final, their head coach – Brent Janse van Rensburg – was the Pumas coach when they won in Oudtshoorn, but Williams isn't convinced that means they'll be exposed in the final.

"To be honest we're playing basically the same game plan as when he was with us. Most probably there will be some effect because he knows a lot of the players personally, so he'll know who to target and what areas to target them in. But it'll come down to who wants it the most in the final."

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