Call off the search party — Keiran Williams is alive and well and living in south-west Wales.
Eye-witness sightings of this mystery man in Merthyr last Saturday afternoon suggest he occasionally travels.
What to make of it all?
Williams appeared as a replacement for Swansea against Merthyr in an Indigo Welsh Premiership encounter at The Wern. It was only for 28 minutes, but, still, it was Williams’ first rugby in seven months. There were no reports of him shoving policemen out of the way in his eagerness to get on the field again, but the assumption is he would have been desperately keen to resume.
His career, after all, has been jolted by injuries and illness.
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Rewind to 2020 and pushing into 2021 and he was felt to be one of Welsh rugby's upwardly mobile players. He had already starred for Wales U20s and in 2017 he’d followed Alun Wyn Jones, Taulupe Faletau and Tomos Williams by winning the Welsh Premiership’s Newcomer of the Year award.
The Ospreys called him their little cannonball as he fairly exploded into defensive lines. His directness and low centre of gravity meant there were comparisons with Scott Gibbs to such an extent that in training team-mates started calling him Gibbsy.
Praise came in from all around. Tom Shanklin said of him: “He’s a nugget of a 12, he wants to carry, he wants to hit hard lines, he has pace and he’s deceptively strong. He’s not a big bloke, but he’s really stocky. He’s the kind of size Gordon D’Arcy was, a difficult man to put down.”
Shane Williams and Sean Holley were among others who enjoyed what Williams offered.
Doubtless, all would have seen the youngster play against Racing 92 in France in the Heineken Champions Cup. He and Tiann Thomas-Wheeler were up against Virimi Vakatawa and Henry Chavancy that night, internationals both. The French duo might not have expected too much from the kids in front of them.
But Williams, in particular, declined to be awed as he powered into contact and crossed the gainline. You can read more about the Ospreys' pocket rocket here.
Vakatawa could have been forgiven for being shocked at the boldness of the then 22-year-old. The 5ft 10in Welshman wasn’t the biggest, after all, and maybe Racing didn’t have a huge file of information and analysis on him. But by the time he left the pitch the two French centres knew all about him.
Then the plot began to go a shade haywire.
A bad concussion towards the end of the season before last knocked Williams off course and he seems to have been followed by ill luck since. Stern competition for midfield places at the Ospreys, with Owen Watkin, Michael Collins, George North, Joe Hawkins and Thomas-Wheeler among those vying to play, has made his challenge even greater.
The good news is that he had that run-out last week.
Almost inevitably, there has been a blip, though, as reported by Ospreys head coach Toby Booth at the region’s press call ahead of their home United Rugby Championship game with the Stormers on Friday evening.
“He has been ill, so he has not been around this week and is recovering,” said Booth.
One step forward, another one back?
Hopefully, the illness will not last long and Williams can get back to playing again.
Booth certainly hopes so.
“Keiran was one of our most impactful players during my first year at the Ospreys and had a very good season,” said the region’s team boss.
“It’s been stop-start since then, which is a shame for him because he’s a guy who could impact a game quite significantly.
“So that’s really disappointing for him and for us.”
The aim now will be to get Williams back up to speed for the busy schedule ahead. “One hundred percent that’s the goal,” said Booth.
“We’ll lose guys for the internationals coming up and then we travel to South Africa and those boys probably won’t be with us for that window, as well; then we’re straight back into the Champions Cup.
“So we’re under extreme pressure with the Christmas derbies to follow. We are going to need all of our resources to manage our way through.”
Williams just needs some good fortune. It’s overdue for him to have it.
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