{"id":346141,"date":"2026-01-01T09:29:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-01T09:29:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/346141\/"},"modified":"2026-01-01T09:29:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-01T09:29:08","slug":"why-i-was-caught-off-guard-despite-being-one-of-the-worlds-best","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/346141\/","title":{"rendered":"Why I was caught ‘off guard’ despite being one of the world’s best"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tamaiti Williams may now be an experienced international but even he was taken by surprise at times during the All Blacks\u2019 2025 season.<\/p>\n

New Zealand once again endured a mixed campaign, losing three matches and failing to win the Rugby Championship or seal a Grand Slam on their northern hemisphere tour.<\/p>\n

That has not stopped Williams from becoming one of the world\u2019s best props, however, with the loosehead absolutely vital to their cause over the past couple of years.<\/p>\n

The 25-year-old made his Test debut in 2023 and played a key role in their run to the Rugby World Cup final that year, coming off the bench to impressively quell the Springboks threat at the scrum.<\/p>\n

Bench impact<\/p>\n

He has continued to develop since that tournament but he was largely used by All Blacks<\/a> head coach Scott Robertson as an impact player off the bench in 2025.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne thing I\u2019ve learnt is when you get an opportunity you\u2019ve got to take it. I\u2019ve got it right at times but I\u2019ve also got it wrong. I\u2019ve taken a lot of growth out of that,\u201d he told the New Zealand Herald.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like my game is evolving. Earlier in my career, I played loosehead and tighthead, but I\u2019m at loosehead at the moment. The demand on the prop nowadays to 20 years ago is a lot different. The way we want to play the game is a lot different.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been challenged in ways that caught me off guard. There\u2019s been some big moments in games, like the scrum against England, and also how I can help people around me so I\u2019m still developing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Planet Rugby\u2019s Top 50 men\u2019s players of 2025: \u2018Unstoppable force\u2019 takes top spot as Springboks dominate 10-1 selection<\/a><\/p>\n

The game has changed over the past few years, which means that despite not starting Williams arguably has a more important role by coming off the bench.<\/p>\n

\u201cI started a lot last year, but with my role [this year] coming off the bench I\u2019ve learnt how important that is. Everyone wants to start, but I\u2019m a full believer in team first so it\u2019s been a bit of a ride,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

New and old heads<\/p>\n

Williams therefore hopes to iron out those flaws when the 2026 Test season begins as the All Blacks seek to finally hit their stride under Robertson.<\/p>\n

The head honcho handed a number of debuts out in 2025 but an experienced core still remains in the forward pack.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope it goes that way. One thing I\u2019ve learnt in rugby is there\u2019ll never be a time that this team will be together again. You never know what next year brings,\u201d the Crusaders prop added.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve got Codie Taylor, Scott Barrett and Ardie Savea who have been here for a decade but then I\u2019ll sit next to Fabian (Holland). I remember watching his under-20s for the Highlanders in Ashburton and that feels like yesterday.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a real strength of ours. We have a lot of different athletes and ages.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Revealed: Where Test matches were decided in 2025 as \u2018truth\u2019 window emerges<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tamaiti Williams may now be an experienced international but even he was taken by surprise at times during…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":346142,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[348,3482,620,50,5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-346141","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-home-page","tag-internationals","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346141","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=346141"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346141\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/346142"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=346141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=346141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=346141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}