J.P.R. Williams - Quotations

Quotations

In his introduction to the second autobiography of JPR Williams, former London Welsh and Wales team-mate John Dawes says:

JPR had all the requirements to become a great. He was talented, brave, committed and totally uncompromising. His impact on the game was immediate and long-standing. By 1974 he had travelled with Wales to New Zealand, Australia, Fiji, and Canada. He was an outstanding member of two victorious Lions tours - to New Zealand in 1971 and South Africa in 1974. JPR was an established icon.

JPR Williams, commenting on his dual speciality in rugby and medicine:

I used to say that I spent half my life breaking bones on the rugby field, then the other half putting them back together in the operating theatre.

Gerald Davies, on the 1971 Lions tour, in his autobiography:

Behind us all was the immovable J.P.R. Williams, whose commitment to a competition borders on the frightening. His immense presence gave us as a team strength and total confidence. New Zealand are fond of kicking the high ball at the full back to expose a team's vulnerability and destroy its morale. Most players, I am sure, are reluctant to deal with such a tactic and perhaps give only 75% of their commitment to it - the other 25% is thinking of what might happen. JPR gave 100% of his attention to the act of taking that ball. But more than that, once having retrieved it his thoughts were not entirely defensive and he would look to the options for attack. His style of play added another dimension to the role of the full back and to the possibilities open to any team in which he played.

In 2002, Tim Glover of The Independent likened London Irish centre Brendan Venter to JPR:

No doctor has played rugby with such a wilful disregard for his own wellbeing since J P R Williams, complete with bloodied headband, was charging around the old Arms Park like a wounded bison.