Steve Williams (born 5 October 1982) is an Australian-born German international

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...

player, having played for the SC Neuenheim and the German national rugby union team. He has also played club rugby at highest level in Scotland, the Netherlands and

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of t ...

.Steve Williams's Page
Mosman Rugby website, accessed: 5 March 2010

Biography

Williams has been playing rugby since 1988,Steve Williams profile at totalrugby.de
accessed: 5 March 2010 and hails from

Alstonville, New South Wales Alstonville is a town in northern New South Wales, Australia, part of the region known as the Northern Rivers. Alstonville is on the Bruxner Highway between the town of Ballina (13 km to the east) and city of Lismore (19 km to the w ...

.Aussie backpacker's debut victory
''

Fox Sports Fox Sports is the brand name for a number of sports channels, broadcast divisions, programming, and other media around the world. The ''Fox Sports'' name has since been used for other sports media assets. These assets are held mainly by the Fo ...

'', published: 27 November 2007, accessed: 5 March 2010 Williams qualified to play for Germany through his German mother and, after backpacking through Europe and watching Australia play in the

2007 Rugby World Cup The 2007 Rugby World Cup was the sixth Rugby World Cup, a quadrennial international rugby union competition inaugurated in 1987. Twenty nations competed for the Webb Ellis Cup in the tournament, which was hosted by France from 7 September to 2 ...

, he had a trial for Germany, which he passed. He impressed Germany's director of rugby, Peter Ianusevici, enough to field him in Germany's next game.Germans nick Aussie backpacker
super10rugby.com, published: 23 November 2007, accessed: 5 March 2010 He made his debut for Germany on 24 November 2007, three days after his trial, a 34–5 victory against

Moldova Moldova ( , ; ), officially the Republic of Moldova ( ro, Republica Moldova), is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Romania to the west and Ukraine to the north, east, and south. The unrecognised state of Transnistri ...

Heidelberg Heidelberg (; Palatine German: ') is a city in the German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Neckar in south-west Germany. As of the 2016 census, its population was 159,914, of which roughly a quarter consisted of students. ...

. He neither speaks German nor was he able to sing the German national anthem, but he indicated his willingness to learn both for the upcoming spring tests in early 2008. His debut for Germany however meant, he was not eligible to play for his native country Australia in the future, as the

International Rugby Board World Rugby is the world governing body for the sport of rugby union. World Rugby organises the Rugby World Cup every four years, the sport's most recognised and most profitable competition. It also organises a number of other international rug ...

allows a player to play for only one country. Williams played three games for the team in the 2006-2008 European Nations Cup Second Division, his last on 26 April 2008, against the Netherlands, with Germany winning all three of them and securing promotion to the 2008-2010 European Nations Cup First Division. After his stint in Europe and playing for Germany, he now again plays in Australia, for Mosman Rugby Club. He is a European and Business Studies student at Sydney's

Macquarie University Macquarie University ( ) is a public research university based in Sydney, Australia, in the suburb of Macquarie Park. Founded in 1964 by the New South Wales Government, it was the third university to be established in the metropolitan area ...

. Williams was supposed to play for SC Neuenheim in the 2008–09 Bundesliga season but, despite being confirmed by the club as a transfer, did not travel to Europe to play for the team.TotalRugby Vorschau 1. Bundesliga – 9. Spieltag 2008/2009
totalrugby.de, published: 20 November 2008, accessed: 7 March 2010

Honours

National team

* European Nations Cup – Division 2 ** Champions:

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

Stats

Steve Williams's personal statistics in club and international rugby:

National team

* ''As of 5 March 2010''

References

External links

Steve Williams
at scrum.com *
Steve Williams
at totalrugby.de {{DEFAULTSORT:Williams, Steve 1982 births Living people Australian rugby union players German rugby union players Germany international rugby union players Australian people of German descent SC Neuenheim players Rugby union props Macquarie University alumni Australian expatriate rugby union players Expatriate rugby union players in Scotland Australian expatriate sportspeople in Scotland People from the Northern Rivers Rugby union players from New South Wales