This Friday Matt Williams will bring up his 50th appearance for London Scottish as they take on Nottingham in the Greene King IPA Championship.
Williams has been with the Scots since the 2014/15 season having previously played for Moseley, Bristol, Sale Sharks and Doncaster Knights. He has also spent time in the England 7s set up.
Williams is an integral part of this year’s London Scottish squad and has made nine appearances for the Scots this season scoring 3 tries, including a well taken try last week against Bedford Blues (pictured above).
Williams is very much a fan favourite down at The Athletic Ground, with supporters always cheering him on with a sense of excitement every time he gets his hands on the ball. A lot of this love for Williams is down to the determination he has shown to get back fit and back into the starting XV after two serious long-term knee injuries.
Williams suffered a serious knee injury during the 15/16 season. This kept him on the sidelines until the February 2017, a very frustrating time for Williams because during 14/15 season, he was in fine form scoring 12 tries in 25 appearances for the Scots. For some players, a serious injury, that takes over a year to recover, would have been enough for them to hang up their boots but Matt was determined to get back to his try-scoring best.
Williams’ determination and resilience was a way of repaying the good faith and hard work from everyone at London Scottish who helped him get back on the field.
Williams signed on for the 17/18 campaign to many supporters’ approval and he is part of the current London Scottish squad that is under transition with the new coaching staff, headed by Director of Rugby Dave Morris.
Williams is part of the core part-time players who combine work with training at London Scottish. After completing his BA in Architecture from Liverpool University, he is now using his degree in London as he begins to look towards life after rugby.
Williams spoke of his pride in representing Scottish, “it’s an honour and a privilege to be making my 50th appearance for a club that has so much tradition and history.”
Williams also wanted to make it clear how thankful he was to the club, “there were times when I didn’t think I would play rugby again so to be making my 50th appearance is a big deal for me. I would like to thank the club and all the supporters for the help and support during my time here and I hope I can get many more appearances in the future.”
I think everyone involved with London Scottish would agree that Matt Williams thoroughly deserves to be bringing up his 50th appearance after the struggles he has been through and to come out the other side and still be scoring tries is a real credit to him.
Let’s hope the Scottish boys can mark Matt’s special day with a win against Nottingham and we can head into 2018 with a very positive outlook.
C’mon Scottish
Matt is sponsored by Ian Aitken & Kim Powell
