Martyn Williams reflects on 'if only'
July 04 2009
He was Man of the Match on Saturday, delivering such an accomplished openside performance you were left thinking 'if only he had played before'.
Martyn Williams shared similar sentiments, not for his personal performance but more for the team and for the tight margins which this series was won and lost by.
After a superb third Test victory, Williams begrudgingly admitted that this summer break will have an anti-climactic feel after a series he believes the Lions were so close to winning.
"I think as happy as we are now, we'll go back in the summer and see a lot of 'if only' in the first two Tests," he said.
"You can't take anything away from South Africa, at critical times in the first two Tests they have come up with the goods when they needed to.
"But it's the sad thing, we are going to go back thinking 'if only... we could have won that series."
Williams, as coach Ian McGeechan did, also reserved words of praise for captain Paul O'Connell who delivered a stirring team talk before the game as the Lions waited for their opposition.
"I think POC has been one of the best captains I have ever worked under and he just kept ramming home what a privilege it is to be picked for the Lions," he said.
"We didn't want to let either ourselves down or the boys who have come out here and not played or gone home with injuries.
"It's difficult to analyse a game when you just came off the field, but for me I was just looking at Joe Worsley and Paul, I thought they were immense today.
"It was a nice way to finish the series because it has been so close, and we spoke all week about going out with a win so it was good to get it."
Williams also believes that the success of this tour has been a benchmark of the modern era, a timely reminder in a clinical modern age of in-and-out tours that the Lions is a tradition that must be upheld for the good of the game and its players.
"It's not just media, we have got on so well as people, players and management, hopefully we showed today that there's definitely a future for us," he said.
"It's tough in the modern era to get a series and the players together because of the demands of club and country, but it is something we should fight tooth and nail to have going forward.
"You speak to any player here and they'll tell you it was the highlight of their career."
But a summer of rest now awaits the 33-year-old, who showed no intention of retiring from either club or international rugby in the future.
"I'm going to put my feet up for a couple of weeks, we've got five weeks from now, the Welsh boys," he said.
"I can't wait to get back and see my family right now and then hopefully keep it going for Wales next year, form permitting."
We imagine it probably will be permitting, on the strength of today.
By Danny Stephens in Johannesburg