Owen Williams: With Lions and Tigers

TRU contributor Alex Hannah caught up with Leicester Tigers’ Owen Williams on life with National Two North side Leicester Lions and bouncing back from injury.

Owen Williams has been spending his Saturdays whilst out injured with a broken jaw as Backs Coach of the Leicester Lions, who ply their trade in National Two North.

The Lions, who sit third in the table, had boasted an unbeaten home record until this weekend when they let a seven-point half time lead slip against table topping Macclesfield.

Williams’ hopes of representing Wales in this year’s Six Nations were dashed when he collided with Courtney Lawes during the East Midlands derby against Northampton Saints back at the start of January. Despite that bitter disappoint, Williams has thoroughly enjoyed his time with The Lions.

“I’m absolutely loving it," he said. “They’re a great group of lads. It’s nice to come away from the professional environment, and back to club rugby.

“Coaching down here has given me a bit of a different outlook. I can sympathise with the coaches over at Tigers now. It’s a lot harder than you think, I’d much rather be a player than a coach, it’s a simpler job.”

Despite Macclesfield being top of the league, the Leicester fly-half was still frustrated with The Lions’ loss, admitting that the side probably threw the game away in the second half.

He added: “The home record was something we’re massively proud of. We let one slip today though, but Macclesfield are top of the league for a reason, they’re a very good team. I feel though, that we lost that game as opposed to Macclesfield winning it.”

“We also gave away too many soft penalties and you can’t win games against the top teams if you’re conceding those penalties and receiving two yellow cards.

“We’ve got a good enough squad here to compete with the best teams in the league, you can never be happy with losing at home, we’re definitely good enough to have won today.”

Williams got his first start on Sunday in The Tigers’ 21-13 victory over the current Aviva Premiership champions, Saracens. Williams lined up at inside centre alongside England hopeful Freddie Burns who was at fly-half and also took care of the kicking duties.

The former Scarlets man is still hopeful of a top two finish for The Tigers, and believes Leicester’s poor form is behind them and that The Tigers are capable of winning every game from now until the end of the season.

“We had three weeks where we lost games we were more than capable of winning, it was somewhat of a blip, Williams said.

“Wasps are a very good side at the Ricoh and not many go there and win, so these things happen but we know we’ve got to push for second spot and that means trying to win every single game that’s left for us now.”

A strong finish to the season for Leicester and Owen could well see him in the frame for a Welsh call up for the summer tour to New Zealand. Pulling on the Welsh jersey is still very much the goal for the stand-off.

Williams said: “I want to play for Wales, there is no doubt about that. I know I need a bit of luck, to stay fit and to play good rugby. If that happens, hopefully it’ll happen eventually.”