Williams’ hopes of a return faded further as new coach John Manenti took the slimmed-down Australian men’s sevens team to great heights in 2021-22,winning an historic first World Series.

But things changed in November,after Williams answered a call from former Aussie sevens teammate Josh Coward to play for Brisbane Easts in a Queensland sevens tournament in Noosa. The pair dominated and Williams’ sizzling efforts attracted the attention of sevens general manager Scott Bowen,who was looking for an injury replacement for the Cape Town sevens in December.

“I got a call to ask if I could get to Cape Town and join the squad again,which was awesome,” Wiliams said.

Williams did well enough to keep his place in the Australian squad for summer training and with captain Nick Malouf still injured,he has retained his spot in the team for the New Zealand sevens,which kicks off on Saturday in Hamilton. The Sydney Sevens follows,next week at Allianz Stadium.

It’s a bona-fide second chance for Williams,and he credits club rugby and smaller-scale sevens tournaments for helping him show his true worth.

“Originally I didn’t really get too much game time on the World Series when I was playing (in 2018-21),which was a bit upsetting but that’s the way it goes,” Williams said.

“Just going out to local tournaments and being able to play full games,you’re able to show what you can actually do. And just doing a lot of skill work playing for Souths definitely helped develop me as a player. Going into sevens when I first came in,I was just kind of thrown in.

“They obviously helped a lot but I didn’t have much of a background with it. Now,having played a whole season of 15s,the skillwork has come on and it has helped a lot,coming back into it.

“The goal now is to play well and try and stay in the squad for this season,and hopefully next season. I will just have to go out there and prove myself again.”

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