Shane Williams admits he will enter the last-chance saloon tomorrow night in an attempt to rescue his British and Irish Lions Test ambitions. Reigning world player of the year Williams has been left behind in the Test team running by rival wings Tommy Bowe and Ugo Monye.
While the Lions’ first Test picks can boast eight tries between them on tour, Williams has not yet broken his duck.
And he is realistic enough to know a Newlands appointment with the Emerging Springboks could leave any future Lions prospects parked permanently in the hard-shoulder.
At 32, Williams appears highly unlikely to be part of another Lions adventure, and an ineffective display tomorrow might well close the book on that particular career chapter.
“It’s my last opportunity, I suppose,” said Wales’ record international try-scorer. “It is a massive game — it could be my last Lions game ever.
“I need a big game, I know that, to have any chance of playing in the last two Tests. It is all up to me on the day. You come on these tours to play in the Test matches, and I want to play more than anything. I am more determined than ever to be involved.
“I spoke to (Springboks wing) Bryan (Habana) after the first Test, and told him I was gutted that I wasn’t playing. He said ‘you never know, I might see you next week.‘
“I have just got to continue training hard and hopefully take my opportunities when they come. It’s a last-chance saloon tomorrow.”
Williams admits he has found it difficult to make an impact during his previous tour starts against the Royal XV, Cheetahs and Sharks.
“My hands on the ball ratio has been down. Maybe when the ball does come my way, I am trying to look for things to do before I have even touched the ball,” he added.
“I’ve found it very difficult to get into the games so far, and no-one is more disappointed than myself, but the tour isn’t quite over yet. I put the pressure on myself. There is no-one more disappointed than myself at the moment with the way things have gone, so it is up to me to change that.”
Williams has not remotely hit the heights this year of h2008, when apart from landing the International Rugby Board’s leading player accolade, he won a Grand Slam with Wales and broke his country’s Test try record.
“I knew it was going to be difficult this year,” he said. “The attention seems to be on me constantly, whether it is off the field or on the field.
“I know I have to deal with that, and hopefully it will make me a better player. I have felt the pressure, I would be lying if I say I hadn’t.
“But I would like to think I am a good enough player to hold all that pressure on my back and become a better player from it. I think I have still got a lot more to offer.
“I was glad when I was mentioned in the starting line-up tomorrow. I want to prove a few people wrong — it’s a massive game.”
With Monye failing to take two glorious try-scoring opportunities against the Springboks in Durban last Saturday, it has increased pressure on the Harlequins speedster.
But Williams continued: “I am not here to criticise the finishing of the guys on the weekend. I thought Ugo was very unlucky. The first ‘try’ was a tremendous effort by (Jean) de Villiers to stop him scoring. I was on the other side of the field, and I 100 per cent backed Ugo.
“With the other one, he was unfortunate when he had the ball dislodged from his hand. That’s the way it goes sometimes, it has happened to all of us.”
Lions head coach Ian McGeechan’s line-up for the final midweek game features two props flown in during the past 48 hours.
Ireland Grand Slam winner John Hayes arrived two days ago as replacement for ankle injury victim Euan Murray, but England and Wasps loosehead Tim Payne — summoned as cover for Andrew Sheridan — only touched down today and went straight into training at a Cape Town school.
Ronan O’Gara leads the team, making him the Lions’ fifth different captain on tour after Paul O’Connell, Brian O’Driscoll, Phil Vickery and Donncha O’Callaghan.
Two of the first Test substitutes start — O’Callaghan and flanker Martyn Williams — with four Test starters on the bench in Monye, Vickery, hooker Lee Mears and flanker David Wallace.
The Emerging Springboks side, meanwhile, contains several players who have already tackled the Lions on tour, including Golden Lions scrum-half Jano Vermaak, Cheetahs prop Wian du Preez and Sharks flanker Jean Deysel.
“We are blessed with the amount of depth we have in South African rugby,” said Emerging Springboks coach Dick Muir.
“We are wary of the fact the Lions will be looking to bounce back after their defeat in the first Test, but I am confident that we will be competitive against them.”
