Jim says game-plan executed to the letter

YOU COULDN’T help but notice a look of disappointment in Jim Williams’ demeanour when asked would he have liked to have been on the Millennium Stadium pitch, winning a Heineken Cup medal with Munster on Saturday.

The Munster assistant coach might have spent one more year playing but it is likely he would have had to contend with more bench-time rather than “time on the paddock” as he likes to put it.

Then again, he might have stood in the way of Denis Leamy’s development as Munster’s supreme blindside flanker and his meteoric rise as Ireland’s no 8. And Williams is not the kind to hinder the rise of an up-and-comer.