FAMILIARITY BREEDS… WELL, contempt for some, but for Shane Williams it has bred respect for Tommy Bowe.
The Welsh wing legend was in Dublin yesterday as part of build-up for Saturday’s mouth-watering Six Nations clash between the land of his fathers and Ireland.
Asked if any player had inspired pre-match fear in him during his illustrious career, he dwelt briefly on a memory of hoping Brian O’Driscoll would not be passed fit before settling on an imposing direct opponent and one-time team-mate.
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“Probably someone like Tommy Bowe,” admitted the Guinness ambassador, “having played against him at Ulster, and then played with him at the Ospreys, I knew what kind of player he was.
“Immense work-rate as a player and that’s why he has scored so many tries. He always turned up on shoulders, scored tries out wide. Defensively, one of the best tactical defenders I’ve played against and with. As a player against him you knew you had to work equally as hard as him. Otherwise you would come off second best.
The man with 58 international tries to his name added: “He very rarely had a poor game for the Ospreys, always scored tries. He was there to score interception tries in the last minute or put two over and win games against big clubs. It was the same for Ireland; I’ve played many times against Tommy for Ireland and come off second best against him.”
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The feeling is mutual, even before Williams helped to dump Ireland out of the World Cup at the quarter-final stage in Wellington, Bowe spoke of how tall wingers of his own ilk “hate coming up against”. That sense of dread served to fuel the wide men and drive them to surpass previous standards.
“He’d always say he hated playing against me and I’d say the same. Because we’re professional rugby players, very proud men and we both hated coming second. So when it’s one on one – you against Tommy – there are only two positions you can come.
“We’d discuss it in training, even discuss it in games sometimes — but he’s a great player. I found it really tough against him. When I was playing with him with the Lions, I always knew Tommy would be a starter in one of the Tests and I’d have to fight with someone else for another position.”
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Avoiding that direct match-up was a key component of Wales’ 2011 success in in New Zealand. Warren Gatland chose to line out his players conventionally, but switched the wingers so that Williams matched up with Keith Earls and Tommy Bowe’s physicality was met by George North.
“We just felt, defensively it suited me with the Irish kicking game. It seemed to work but I don’t think we won the game because I played on the right wing,” says Williams.
“The whole conversation of that game was to win the breakdown. It’s an area where Ireland have been the best in the Six Nations for some time now with the likes of O’Brien and Heaslip being very effective there.
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