Owen Williams waits on Welsh offer for return home from Top League

OWEN Williams will make a decision on where he will be playing next season within the ‘next month or so' as he gets to grips with life in .

The centre, now playing for NTT Docomo Red Hurricanes under former boss Johan Ackermann, is eager to play for his country under but needs an offer from a Welsh region to make that possible. Williams, 29, decided to move to Japan after successive injuries left him ‘devastated'.

He tore his hamstring in the minutes leading up to kick-off against in the 2020 which robbed him of a Wales comeback after ten months out with a knee injury.

“I will definitely know more over the next month or so,” Williams said. “If I love it here then I could stay for longer but if not, I'll have to see if I can get offered a contract from back home.

“I had a good chat with Wayne before I signed to come here last year. We had a few conversations over the phone and I said I was going to be moving away for a year.

“I definitely would like to still play for Wales. It all comes down to whether I get offered a contract in Wales, because I can't go and play anywhere else.”

The one-two punch of successive injuries left Williams reeling and made him want to try something new, even knowing Hadleigh Parkes would be vacating the No.12 jersey to move to Japan himself.

Williams, capped three times, added:“I was pretty devastated. I had just come back from a knee reconstruction, played four or five games and think I'm about to play against Ireland and then I tore my hamstring about as close to kick-off as you can get when finishing a warm-up.

“That was devastating doing that after being out for ten months beforehand.

“But I feel fit and the body feels good now, thankfully, and this is a good league as well. We are playing against some of the best players in the world and some of the Japanese players are up to the standard as well, so it is a good place to come and test yourself on a weekly basis.

“I knew Hadleigh was leaving but you don't often get opportunities like this, and I may never get a chance like it again. It was the right time for me and my wife to try something completely different.

“But playing for Wales is an itch I would like to scratch again and we will see when that might be.”

■By ADAM ELLIS