Shane Williams is the greatest player ever.

First topic message reminder :

Gareth Edwards was good.
Campo scored loads of tries.
Wilkinson kicks a good dropgoal and has a great tackle.

Etc etc..

From what I've seen over the past 15 years nobody has, is or is going to be better than Shane Williams.

wales606 wrote:

majesticimperialman wrote:Shane Williams maybe the best/ greatist player that has ever played for Wales.

But the best ever?

No. not by a long shot.

Gareth Edwards.

Wales' greatest

And was voted the greatest ever rugby player by players from all nations.

You love to trot that one out wales606. Not saying he wasn't a special player but presumably he was voted by players from all nations of his era. But his era was some time ago and rugby has changed a lot since then. If current players from all nations were given the vote now I doubt very much Edwards would get the vote now. I'm darned if I know who they would vote for but I'd bet big to say it wouldn't be Edwards.

yes certainly the best welsh player, possibly only top 100 best ever tho

poor man's Jason Robinson!

It doesn't matter whether he's the greatest or not. The feeling of anticipation and excitement whenever he got the ball never really left even when he was off form. He so often pulled something out of the bag when his team needed it. against France in 08, against Leinster at the weekend. He was an all time great. The best ever, well that's debatable.

Rupert Moon

Well if you're going to silly then why shouldn't I.

Rupert moon has a great name

Rupert moon was the lad that played for england under 21's but then played for wales cough cough- hypocrs.... coiugh cough

From read this posting a lot now I learn something true:

Wales best everything on rugby and only toy with other countries to let the competition interesting!

Is alone secret knowledge of just the Wales!

mystiroakey wrote:Rupert moon was the lad that played for england under 21's but then played for wales cough cough- hypocrs.... coiugh cough

If you hadn't have nicked that berk Dewi Morris off us, that would be irrelevant. Still as long as you feel better for your pointless pop.

Risca Rev wrote:

mystiroakey wrote:Rupert moon was the lad that played for england under 21's but then played for wales cough cough- hypocrs.... coiugh cough

If you hadn't have nicked that berk Dewi Morris off us, that would be irrelevant. Still as long as you feel better for your pointless pop.

i thought it was funny

me too

As an England fan (and ignoring every England player ever) Shane is one of the best Welsh players, but not even in the same ball park as Richie McCaw, Dan Carter, George Gregan, John Eales, Serge Blanco, John Kirwan, Wasali Seravi (sp?) Gavin Hastings, BOD, Joost van der Westezen, Francois Peinaar

3rdGrandslamCame wrote:Didn't Ben who retire about 10 years ago or something? Didn't Shane who just scored 2 tries winning his 4th league title at the age of 35?

no.

Cohen is the 10th-highest point scorer in England rugby history and third behind Rory Underwood and Will Greenwood in the list of all time England try scorers.
In February 2000, Cohen made his England debut against Ireland in the inaugural Six Nations Championship, scoring two tries. In June 2001, he joined the Lions tour to Australia.

During the 2002–03 season he played in all of England's matches, scoring against the All Blacks and putting in a try-saving tackle on Ben Blair, he scored twice against the Australians at Twickenham. He also scored against Australia in June 2003 as England won by 25–14, to complete their southern hemisphere tour unbeaten. In England's successful World Cup campaign he started in all but one of England's matches.

I Know what id rather win 3 grandslams or 1 world cup plus two grandslams in 2001/2003) and he actualy played in a team that could neat a team from the southern hemisphere.

A great point and well made EngInAuck. I don't thinking anyone can be argue with that.

I can. The arguement is Cohen should not form any part of a discussion about the greatest player ever.

To suggest otherwise is laughable

tazfalklands wrote:As an England fan (and ignoring every England player ever) Shane is one of the best Welsh players, but not even in the same ball park as Richie McCaw, Dan Carter, George Gregan, John Eales, Serge Blanco, John Kirwan, Wasali Seravi (sp?) Gavin Hastings, BOD, Joost van der Westezen, Francois Peinaar

Nice summary of reality as opposed to myth - although how you didn't include Mike Gibson is beyond me

geoff998rugby wrote:I can. The arguement is Cohen should not form any part of a discussion about the greatest player ever.

To suggest otherwise is laughable

Why is laughable? Some opinions is include pint sized Shane William is act of comedy also.

EngInAuck wrote:

3rdGrandslamCame wrote:Didn't Ben who retire about 10 years ago or something? Didn't Shane who just scored 2 tries winning his 4th league title at the age of 35?

no.

Cohen is the 10th-highest point scorer in England rugby history and third behind Rory Underwood and Will Greenwood in the list of all time England try scorers.
In February 2000, Cohen made his England debut against Ireland in the inaugural Six Nations Championship, scoring two tries. In June 2001, he joined the Lions tour to Australia.

During the 2002–03 season he played in all of England's matches, scoring against the All Blacks and putting in a try-saving tackle on Ben Blair, he scored twice against the Australians at Twickenham. He also scored against Australia in June 2003 as England won by 25–14, to complete their southern hemisphere tour unbeaten. In England's successful World Cup campaign he started in all but one of England's matches.

I Know what id rather win 3 grandslams or 1 world cup plus two grandslams in 2001/2003) and he actualy played in a team that could neat a team from the southern hemisphere.

Well Shane almost won the 2011 RWC. If Sam W hadn't been unfairly sent off then Wales would have beaten France and most probably destroyed the AB's. All the coaches and players in the southern hemisphere think Wales are the best and if they don't then they're just Englishmen pretending to be from the SH.

Shane is the best and always will be, on his day.

Interesting logic ovalball, tongue in cheek?

anotherworldofpain wrote:

geoff998rugby wrote:I can. The arguement is Cohen should not form any part of a discussion about the greatest player ever.

To suggest otherwise is laughable

Why is laughable? Some opinions is include pint sized Shane William is act of comedy also.

Bacause Cohen would not even make the top 100 rugby player ever.
Agree re Williams - probably belongs in the 50 to 100 bracket.

Neither are remotely closed and it is all silly hyperbole.

Campese and Lomu are recent wingers who I feel have more of a claim on the title.

geoff998rugby wrote:Bacause Cohen would not even make the top 100 rugby player ever

No, he wouldn't. Very good player though and had an excellent try scoring record against the Tri-Nations.

Doing a lot of good work for rugby and sport in general now.

agree with that

Shane can't be the greatest... I'M the greatest!

EBOP
It's just what I have learnt from reading 606v2.

Ah, the old mis-read, sorry mate. Yeah I've learnt some of those things as well, and then thought bpllocks.

If 606v2 was full only of true things. What a strange and different world would be outside the door.

Shane is probably the best player I've ever seen at creating something out of nothing or taking a sniff of a quarter chance, with perhaps the exception of Lomu, but taking his overall game as a whole over the whole of his career, it's too much of a mixed bag to make him the greatest ever.

In the home nations in Shane's time, for example, BOD is that step ahead, for me, and he also overlapped with Richard Hill, a hell of a player.

But it's been fantastic watching him.

How can you have a greatest player ever, greatest winger/hooker/prop etc maybe. But greatest player is pretty much impossible.

Although the answer is Gareth Edwards...or 42, I forget.

wales606 wrote:How can you have a greatest player ever, greatest winger/hooker/prop etc maybe. But greatest player is pretty much impossible.

Although the answer is Gareth Edwards...or 42, I forget Juan Smith, a man, a machine, who knows?.

Fixed that for ya.

biltongbek wrote:

wales606 wrote:How can you have a greatest player ever, greatest winger/hooker/prop etc maybe. But greatest player is pretty much impossible.

Although the answer is Gareth Edwards...or 42, I forget Juan Smith, a man, a machine, who knows?.

Fixed that for ya.

biltongbek wrote:

wales606 wrote:

biltongbek wrote:

This is how you do it.

If you want I'll give you a gun?

want it?

You thief.

I'll have to send Superman then.

As an Englishman, and therefore arrogant and wrong on every count, the best complement to give Young Shane would be to say - I'd use a jimpy and a WHOLE belt of 7.62 at every opportunity whenever he got the ball - ammunition expenditure returns be damned!

TrailApe wrote:As an Englishman, and therefore arrogant and wrong on every count, the best complement to give Young Shane would be to say - I'd use a jimpy and a WHOLE belt of 7.62 at every opportunity whenever he got the ball - ammunition expenditure returns be damned!

But that's cheating!

Wales606, mate you owe me a few emoticos mate

You can't compare Williams to Bok wings, because they never get the ball (from their own team) they only get their hands on it via intercept (a la Habana). If Williams had played for the Boks he might only have scored 10 tries!

As for whether he's the greatest player ever: the true greats make a long lasting change in the way Rugby is played. eg Danie Craven, Gareth Edwards, David Campese, Michael Jones, Jonah Lomu, Os Du Randt etc. Williams was undoubtably a very good player and at the top of his era, but what evolutions to the way rugby is played can be attributed to him?

biltongbek wrote:Wales606, mate you owe me a few emoticos mate

Biltong