One of only two Welshmen on a core contract in the GB Sevens squad, Williams is recovering from shoulder surgery. He missed out in Hong Kong in the first round last month and is already counting down the days before he can join compatriot Morgan Williams in the newly formed outfit.
“I picked up the injury at the Commonwealth Games in July in Birmingham,” Williams said. “It’s like a dislocated shoulder and it’s called the Laterjet procedure where they fix the shoulder.
“It’s about a 20-week recovery process and I’m about 15 weeks done, so I’ve got the better part of a month to go, so I’m aiming for the New Zealand and Australia tournaments which are at the end of January.
“I can’t wait because it’s been a bit difficult to see the boys, travel and play away. While they’re away, I’m obviously here training at the Vale doing my rehab, so I’m away from the team environment, which is difficult.”
Morgan Williams is one of 11 players to return from the Hong Kong tournament where Great Britain took five points to find themselves outside the top 10 after the first round.
Originally from North Wales, he made his World Series debut in the eighth round of the 2015/16 season, in Singapore.
In round four of the 2016/17 series in Sydney, he became the first Welsh player to score a hat-trick against Fiji since Rhys Jones achieved the feat four years earlier.
He played in Vancouver and Edmonton for Team GB in the 2021 series and also played in the first two matches of the 2021-22 HSBC Sevens World Series before Scotland, England and Wales reformed for the 2022 World Series /23.
Tom Williams was born in Shrewsbury and grew up in Montgomery in Mid Wales on the Welsh-English border.
He attended the RGC Academy and went to school at Rydal Penrhos where he did his A levels. He was playing for Wales U18s at the time he was picked up by the Ospreys where he made his regional debut in 2017 .
He joined the Ayrshire Bulls in 2021 to play their club rugby in Scotland, but returned to the abbreviated form of the game later in the year when he returned to the World Series with Great Britain Sevens.
In the opening matches of the 2021/22 HSBC Sevens World Series, he played for GB before returning to Wales for the third leg when the four home nations returned to their individual countries.
“When I was at the Ospreys I was in and out of the sevens program for a number of years – last year was my first full year with Wales sevens as a contracted sevens player,” explained Tom Williams, who has also played for Wales under-20s.
“The natural progression was to try and get into the GB Sevens team for this season and looking ahead to the Olympics in two years’ time is the ultimate goal in terms of sevens at the moment.”
Both players see themselves as standard bearers for the Welsh cause as they hope their form on the international stage will encourage future generations of players to get their hands on the national team.
“That’s definitely part of our role now – there’s only two of us from Wales – hopefully we can inspire more players to play sevens,” said Tom.
“It’s a growing game and it’s probably not where it needs to be or it doesn’t have the profile it could have, but with another Olympic cycle we hope it will continue to grow as I think Rio in 2016 gave a huge boost to Sevens, so hopefully the Paris Olympics can do the same.”
In the short term, Williams will focus on her namesake as she prepares to face South Africa, Australia and Kenya in Pool A in Dubai.
“He’s followed a very similar path to mine. We were in teams of the same age in North Wales, we were also at RGC and the Ospreys,” explained Tom.
“The first time we played together was North Wales under-12s or under-13s, I think, so we’ve played each other since we were little. It’s great to be in the same program now and all at this stage in our late 20s and in the GB Sevens program together.”
HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series 2023 – Dubai
Friday, December 2, 2022 – Pool A
South Africa – Great Britain KO 07:34
Australia – Great Britain KO 11.42
Kenya – Great Britain KO 16