Neath RFC’s long-time team secretary David Shaw once utterly nailed it by saying of the club’s legendary prop Brian Williams: “When he played, there was a sense that everything and anything was possible.”
Williams passed away of a suspected heart attack 15 years ago today. He was just 46.
A man blessed with the strength of Popeye and the resolve of an ancient Celtic king, he was the embodiment of how Neath as a town liked to see itself: tough, uncompromising and intolerant of fools, but also warm and friendly. Team-mates revered him, opponents feared him, respect came from all.