{"id":219777,"date":"2025-10-17T08:27:32","date_gmt":"2025-10-17T08:27:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/219777\/"},"modified":"2025-10-17T08:27:32","modified_gmt":"2025-10-17T08:27:32","slug":"its-a-lonely-place-at-prop-the-pressure-can-ruin-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/219777\/","title":{"rendered":"It\u2019s a lonely place at prop, the pressure can ruin you"},"content":{"rendered":"

It is rare that you have an uninteresting conversation with a prop. There is something about the intensity of the alpha-male toughness you need to stand in the front row of the scrum, and the brutal, exposing nature of that job that creates fascinating, thoughtful, sometimes vulnerable, big men. <\/p>\n

Harry Williams, the 34-year-old tight-head, is in this category. Dreadlocks sprout from his head, tattoos mark most of his body, and his nose is bent slightly left to right. But beneath the tough exterior is a softly spoken man of faith, who loves music festivals and believes in fate and God\u2019s mysterious ways.<\/p>\n

At Exeter Chiefs, he used to provide amusing commentary on the Great British Bake Off<\/a> on social media, before he was part of their double-winning team of 2020. In 2015 he was plucked by Rob Baxter from the Championship, where he had played for Nottingham and Jersey Reds, after leaving Loughborough University. He won the Premiership<\/a> title two years later and made his England debut the same summer. <\/p>\n

\"Harry<\/p>\n

Williams, right, is back in the Prem with Quins and relishing his fresh start<\/p>\n

SIMON DAEL<\/p>\n

His 19th and last cap came in 2021, and in 2023 he left the Chiefs, alongside many others, to join Montpellier for one season, then Pau for another. Now he is back in England, playing for Harlequins \u2014 the team he first watched as a child from Crystal Palace \u2014 and speaking publicly for the first time in five years.<\/p>\n

Williams never intended to come home, but he is loving it, as is his family, who spent years ferrying from Dulwich to Devon, or the south of France, but now only have to pop over to Twickenham to watch Harry play.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I first started watching games, I went to watch Quins v Sale with my dad. S\u00e9bastien Chabal was playing and they were coached by Philippe Saint-Andr\u00e9, who then signed me for Montpellier. It\u2019s a very small circle, rugby,\u201d Williams says. <\/p>\n

\u201cI ended my time at Chiefs in rehabilitation, as I blew my knee out against Quins. It\u2019s very weird the way things move. I didn\u2019t think I was going to come back to England when I left Chiefs. It felt quite final. It\u2019s like I\u2019ve sort of been sent here \u2014 maybe that\u2019s the wrong word. I feel my life is very complete. <\/p>\n

\"Harry<\/p>\n

Williams says life in the front row can be \u201cquite exposing\u201d, especially when the match is not going well<\/p>\n

MARC ASPLAND FOR THE TIMES<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s made playing rugby very fresh. When I left Pau, I felt a little bit of burnout, probably for the first time. I just needed time away from the game completely, and I\u2019ve felt very refreshed since coming back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Williams is not the sort of guy who ever sought, or particularly enjoyed, the limelight. While much happened quickly for him ten years ago when he broke into the Premiership as a 24-year-old, he feels he benefited from his circuitous journey to the top, which included time working as a bakery cleaner in Auckland. <\/p>\n

He does not look back with misty eyes \u2014 \u201cthat\u2019s a regressive mindset\u201d \u2014 but would have liked to make more of his England days between 2017 and 2021. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d just enjoy the whole thing a little bit more,\u201d he says. \u201cSometimes you get on a roll of playing and you don\u2019t realise what a privileged position you\u2019re in. I could have had more joy in it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The life of the prop can be quite exposing, he says. \u201cWith the international stuff, fans can be very nasty,\u201d Williams explains. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t really bother me particularly, those other pressures that I felt, but I know a lot of lads feel a lot of pressure from people speaking about them online. If you\u2019re doing that, you need to just check yourself. What are you doing?<\/p>\n

\"Harry<\/p>\n

England duty was a privilege for Williams and the games were \u201csweet\u201d but he wishes he\u2019d made more of the camps<\/p>\n

DAN MULLAN\/GETTY IMAGES<\/p>\n

\u201cI know people have a right to say whatever they want, but it really gets to some people, and when you play in those kind of situations, the pressure can sometimes ruin it for you. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re a long time retired, and you don\u2019t want to look back on your whole career thinking, \u2018I was worried about what someone was saying,\u2019 or, \u2018If I have a bad performance, will I look like a dick on TV?\u2019 Excuse my language. That\u2019s more a global point than a personal one. I wish I\u2019d enjoyed the camps more. The games were always sweet, but no sadness, no regrets.\u201d<\/p>\n

Williams worries on behalf of front-rowers who are thrust into the cauldron when they are kids. <\/p>\n

\u201cAt prop, it\u2019s a lonely place when you\u2019re on the receiving end of a shoveling. It\u2019s also character building,\u201d he says. \u201cYou don\u2019t want to come across with the younger lads like an old uncle, going \u2018Back in my day\u2026\u2019 and all that, but you want to say to them, \u2018It doesn\u2019t matter if it takes a little bit longer, because you don\u2019t want to get put out too early.\u2019<\/p>\n

\"Harry<\/p>\n

Williams returns on Sunday to Exeter, where he won the Premiership title in 2017 and the Double in 2020, but he wonders if people there will \u201ceven care\u201d after so much upheaval at the club<\/p>\n

MARC ASPLAND FOR THE TIMES<\/p>\n

\u201cI had plenty of time with plenty of good coaches, playing, getting experience. If you\u2019re 20 and you get put out in a game that you probably shouldn\u2019t be getting put out in, it can do quite a lot of damage mentally. You see your face up on the big screen, after giving away a penalty. It really plays on your mind. It can be bad.<\/p>\n

\u201cI realise now, with the gift of hindsight, that patience generally wins, especially when you\u2019re a forward, and sometimes it\u2019s delayed gratification.\u201d<\/p>\n

What Williams does love, though, is how props are becoming so much more celebrated and understood. He saw that first-hand in France, where forward battles are ingrained.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re not trying to rush away from those set pieces, whereas in the UK, I feel there\u2019s an aversion to it, because they want to make the game \u2018more attractive\u2019. Whereas the French value a dominant set piece. The South Africans have changed it as well, with the \u2018bomb squad\u2019 and going for a 7-1 bench in the World Cup final.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Williams was at Exeter, they celebrated their forwards, who drove them to two titles. He is going to find it strange playing at Sandy Park on Sunday, two days after the five-year anniversary of the Chiefs\u2019 extraordinary Champions Cup win. He and Stu Townsend, the Harlequins scrum half, are among the first double-winners to go back. The club has changed so much, so quickly, so Williams wonders what reception he will get.<\/p>\n

\"Benetton<\/p>\n

Williams, left, believes England is catching up with France in appreciating the forward battles and a dominant set piece as much as free-flowing rugby<\/p>\n

SIMON DAEL\/SHUTTERSTOCK<\/p>\n

\u201cWill they even care?\u201d he asks. \u201cThe world of professional sport moves so quickly. You disembark the bus and the bus keeps driving. We achieved a lot on the field, but as you get more experience on the field, you realise the game is very transient, but the relationships are what remain.\u201d<\/p>\n

Williams finds it odd, having been a proud member of the Exeter misfits, to be part of an \u201cinstitution\u201d club like Harlequins. \u201cThere\u2019s a different weight wearing the quarters,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

But he is determined to \u201cride the donkey till the legs give out\u201d, having realised that while rugby can be mentally and physically painful, there is nothing else he would rather do.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t really have a plan for world domination, but I still love the job,\u201d Williams says. \u201cLove playing the games, love being with the boys, love the training. Some people go their whole lives without being put outside their comfort zone, and they live in this little shell, like a comfortable cloud. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhereas every week we get the opportunity to go out there, and it might go well, it might go badly. You feel nervous, you\u2019re being watched by people, and it\u2019s tense, there\u2019s ups and downs. People see it negatively or try to shy away from it, but I think it\u2019s a blessing to be able to experience that, so I just want to enjoy it while I still can.\u201d<\/p>\n

Exeter Chiefs v Harlequins<\/p>\n

Gallagher Prem, Sandy Park
Sunday, 3pm
TV TNT Sports 1<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It is rare that you have an uninteresting conversation with a prop. There is something about the intensity…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":219778,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":["post-219777","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-rugby","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219777","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=219777"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219777\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/219778"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=219777"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=219777"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=219777"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}