After bringing the Brighton forward back into the squad for their Women’s Nations League games against Belgium next month, England manager Sarina Wiegman says Fran Kirby “broughs a lot of experience and great vision.”
McLaren’s victory at the start of the season earned Oscar Piastri pole position and the victory in the Chinese Grand Prix.
Lando Norris placed second, completing the top three with George Russell’s Mercedes.
Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton won the sprint race on Saturday but he and team-mate Charles Leclerc were both disqualified from the main grand prix.
How long do you anticipate Red Bull will take to get Liam Lawson up to speed before switching? – Jon
Their patience appears to have run out, in some ways. This week, Red Bull will be discussing Lawson’s future, and it’s possible that he won’t compete in the upcoming Japanese Grand Prix.
If they go through with it, it will be regarded as a quite remarkable decision, which raises serious questions about the management at Red Bull Racing.
Let’s go back and explain why.
Sergio Perez was signed to a two-year contract extension with the Red Bull team in May of last year, ending his 2026 contract there.
This was despite the fact that the Mexican was struggling as Max Verstappen’s team-mate, and that the 2024 season looked to be going the same way as the year before – a bright start from Perez, and then an alarming slump in form.
Carlos Sainz, who had left Ferrari to sign Lewis Hamilton, might have been a free agent. However, he remembered the tensions between the Sainz and Verstappen camps at Toro Rosso in 2015 and made up his mind to return.
Re-signing Perez, Horner’s theory went, would give him the confidence to recover his form.
The strategy was utterly unsuccessful. Despite Verstappen winning a fourth world title by 63 points, Perez’s performances fell off a cliff, and the team fell to third place in the constructors’ championship.
Verstappen only won twice in the final 14 races of the year because the car lost competitiveness and became difficult to drive. So do Perez’s difficulties.
However, Helmut Marko, Horner, and Helmut Marko, the team’s motorsport adviser, decided Perez had had his day and needed to change.
They paid him off – to the tune of many millions of dollars – and signed Lawson.
Because they thought he had a mental toughness lacking the Japanese, they chose the New Zealander over Yuki Tsunoda, their much more experienced team-mate at the junior Racing Bulls team.
The season has started badly for Lawson. He qualified 18th at the season-opener in Melbourne, where he crashed out of the race, and last in both the sprint and grand prix in China, failing to make much progress in either event.
Verstappen, however, struggles at least partially, too. He does not conceal his belief that the car is the top four teams, as he did in China, where he made a strong suggestion that it might not be as fast as the Racing Bull.
The Red Bull is nervous on corner entry, has mid-corner understeer and is snappy on exits. And it doesn’t seem to the team to be able to fix it.
Verstappen enjoys a sharp front end, but he doesn’t want the car to act in this way. But he can cope, and get a lap time out of it. Lawson is unable to, at least not at this point.
Lawson spoke in Chinese as though he already recognized the writing on the wall.
“It’s just (got) a very small window”, he said. You know, driving is difficult, but it’s “hard” to get it in that window. With the passage of time, I’d like to say that I simply don’t have the time to do that. It’s something I need to get on top of”.
The management will need to do some serious explaining if Red Bull decides to drop him after two races.
They will be questioned if signing him in December was the wise choice. Why is that the case now? If Tsunoda is the driver replacing him, the question becomes even starker.
That’s probably too early if they instead choose Frenchman Isack Hadjar, who impressed as Tsunoda’s rookie team-mate in the first two grands prix.
Why blame the driver, if the car appears to be the first-order culprit, as it should be?
Ferrari was responsible for the double disqualification, but was it simply unlucky and out of their control? – Ozan
Formula 1 is a frontier-living organism. Teams must push their cars as far as they can within the technical regulations as they can to win because that is what everyone is doing.
The line between success and failure is so fine. And two of the main performance differences are ride height and weight.
In Formula One, one kilogram of extra weight costs about 0.0335 per lap. Multiply that by the 56 laps of the Chinese Grand Prix, for example, and it’s two seconds of race time. Not much, but it could determine whether you win or not, or whether you are better or worse.
That serves only as an example of why cars are edged. And when you run to the edge, mistakes can happen.
On Sunday, Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari was found to be 1 kg underweight.
Ferrari attributed this to the switch to a one-stop strategy, which meant the car ran the race with less tyre rubber than the anticipated two-stop, and that marked the difference between exceeding the maximum weight limit and falling below it.
Of course, other teams also switched to a one-stop, without ending up underweight. Mercedes and George Russell faced the same fate last year in Belgium after being disqualified for victory.
Lewis Hamilton’s skid blocks were too worn. Again, it’s the sort of thing that can happen – indeed, it happened to Hamilton when he was at Mercedes in the 2023 US Grand Prix, and Leclerc in the same race.
Again, it’s about limiting the options. As long as teams can maintain aerodynamic stability, the lower these current cars can typically be driven, creating the most downforce.
But run them too low, and they risk wearing the floor excessively – and that’s what happened.
Aside from the McLaren, who has impressed you the most at this very early stage? – SJM
The season has already started off very well for Racing Bulls. Tsunoda qualified fifth in Australia, and his team-mate Hadjar was seventh on the grid and Tsunoda ninth in China.
Although the cars have fared a little wrong, Verstappen even suggested that it was superior to the Red Bull in China.
Racing Bulls use a good deal of Red Bull components, but since Red Bull have started to struggle, it may not be as much as it once did in theory when rival rivals worried about the close relationship between the two teams.
In the cockpit, Hadjar, notwithstanding his crash on the formation lap in Australia, has made a strong first impression.
How did Lewis Hamilton’s sprint and qualifying times differ so much? Or how did the other drivers close the gap in such a short space of time? – Ash
There are several reasons for this. Ferrari hit the ground running in China and landed on a decent set-up for sprint qualifying in the single practice session before it.
Hamilton also gave a fantastic performance on a track where he has always done well to take pole.
However, other teams involved had some underachievement.
The McLaren was the fastest car in China and Oscar Piastri was more comfortable in it than Lando Norris. In sprint qualifying, both teams finished third and sixth on the grid.
At the first corner, Hamilton converted pole to lead, and he then made the most of the opening opportunity.
He drove superbly, but he was protected from Piastri for much of the race by Verstappen, who the Australian did not pass until four laps from the end, by which time Hamilton had built a lead too big to overhaul.
After the sprint, the teams can switch up their setups, and it appears that a more natural order has already been established by the time of the grand prix qualifying.
According to Hamilton, “We had a pretty decent car in the sprint, and then we made some changes to try to move forward and improve the car, but it ultimately made it worse going into qualifying and then it was even worse in the race.”
Among those changes seems to have been lifting the car slightly, which Hamilton more or less confirmed after the race: “I don’t know who said we lifted the car, but we made some other changes, mostly, as well as that, but not massively, just small amounts”.
Even though Leclerc had a damaged front wing, he was faster than Hamilton in the grand prix. And Hamilton’s car still wore the skid blocks too much despite the modifications. Hence his disqualification.
Is it possible that all information is passed by radio or telemetry as the drivers enter the pit wall? – Phil
The only useful information about the drivers is that pit boards provide, primarily laps left, with other important information. The front and back drivers’ gaps are frequently included as well.
They’re also there as a back-up in case the radio fails.
Oscar Piastri converted pole position to win the Chinese Grand Prix, as McLaren made it two wins from two races at the start of the season.
Lando Norris finished second to make it a McLaren one-two, with George Russell’s Mercedes completing the top three.
Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton won the sprint race on Saturday but he and team-mate Charles Leclerc were both disqualified from the main grand prix.
How long do you think Red Bull will give Liam Lawson to get up to speed before contemplating a switch? – Jon
It rather looks as if their patience has already run out. Red Bull are to discuss Lawson’s future this week, and there is a strong possibility he will be dropped for the next race in Japan.
If they go through with it, it will be regarded as a quite remarkable decision, which raises serious questions about the management at Red Bull Racing.
To understand why, let’s rewind.
In May last year, Red Bull team principal Christian Horner decided to re-sign Sergio Perez on a two-year contract taking him to the end of 2026.
This was despite the fact that the Mexican was struggling as Max Verstappen’s team-mate, and that the 2024 season looked to be going the same way as the year before – a bright start from Perez, and then an alarming slump in form.
Horner could have brought in Carlos Sainz, who was a free agent following Ferrari’s decision to sign Lewis Hamilton. But he remembered the tension between the Sainz and Verstappen camps when they were team-mates at Toro Rosso in 2015 and decided he did not want go there again.
Re-signing Perez, Horner’s theory went, would give him the confidence to recover his form.
The strategy failed spectacularly. Perez’s performances fell off a cliff, and the team slumped to third in the constructors’ championship despite Verstappen winning a fourth world title by 63 points.
Verstappen only won twice in the final 14 races of the year because the car lost competitiveness and became difficult to drive. Hence Perez’s struggles.
But Horner and Red Bull motorsport adviser Helmut Marko decided that Perez had had his day and they needed to make a change.
They paid him off – to the tune of many millions of dollars – and signed Lawson.
They picked the New Zealander over his much more experienced team-mate at the junior Racing Bulls team, Yuki Tsunoda, because they believed he had a mental toughness the Japanese lacked.
Lawson has had a dire start to the season. He qualified 18th at the season-opener in Melbourne, where he crashed out of the race, and last in both the sprint and grand prix in China, failing to make much progress in either event.
But Verstappen is also struggling – at least relatively. He is not hiding his belief that the car is the slowest of the top four teams – indeed he implied pretty strongly in China that he believed it may not be as fast as the Racing Bull.
The Red Bull is nervous on corner entry, has mid-corner understeer and is snappy on exits. And the team don’t seem to know how to fix it.
Verstappen likes a sharp front end, but he doesn’t want the car to behave like this. But he can cope, and get a lap time out of it. Lawson cannot, at least not yet.
Lawson was talking in China as if he already knew the writing was on the wall.
“It’s just (got) a very small window,” he said. “It’s hard, you know – it’s hard to drive, to get it in that window. I’d like to say that with time that’ll come – I just don’t have time to do that. It’s something I need to get on top of.”
If Red Bull drop him after two races, the management will have some serious explaining to do.
If signing him was the right decision in December, why is it the wrong decision now, they will be asked. If Tsunoda is the driver replacing him, the question becomes even starker.
And if instead they choose Frenchman Isack Hadjar, who has impressed as Tsunoda’s rookie team-mate in the first two grands prix, well, that’s surely too early.
Equally, if the first-order problem is the car – as it seems to be – why blame the driver?
Are Ferrari at fault for the double disqualification, or was it just unlucky and out of their control? – Ozan
Formula 1 lives on the edge. To win, teams have to push their cars as close to the limit of the technical regulations as possible – because that is what everyone is doing.
The line between success and failure is so fine. And weight and ride height are two of the key performance differentiators.
One kilogram of extra weight in F1 costs approximately 0.035secs a lap. Multiply that by the 56 laps of the Chinese Grand Prix, for example, and it’s two seconds of race time. Not a lot, but it could be the difference between winning and not, or one place higher or lower.
That’s just to explain why cars are run to the edge. And when you run to the edge, mistakes can happen.
In the case of Ferrari on Sunday, Charles Leclerc’s car was found to be 1kg underweight.
Ferrari ascribed this to the fact that they had switched to a one-stop strategy, so the car finished the race with less rubber on the tyres than had they run the expected two-stop, and that was the difference between being over the minimum weight limit and under.
Of course, other teams also switched to a one-stop, without ending up underweight. But exactly the same thing happened to Mercedes with George Russell in Belgium last year when he was disqualified from victory.
As for Lewis Hamilton, his skid blocks had worn too much. Again, it’s the sort of thing that can happen – indeed, it happened to Hamilton when he was at Mercedes in the 2023 US Grand Prix, and Leclerc in the same race.
Again, it’s about pushing the margins. Generally with these current cars, the lower they can be run, the more downforce they can create, as long as teams can keep the aerodynamics stable.
But run them too low, and they risk wearing the floor excessively – and that’s what happened.
Aside from the McLaren, who has impressed you the most at this very early stage? – SJM
Racing Bulls have had a very strong start to the season. Tsunoda qualified fifth in Australia, and his team-mate Hadjar was seventh on the grid and Tsunoda ninth in China.
The races have gone a bit wrong so far, but the car looks strong – in China, Verstappen was even implying it was better than the Red Bull.
Racing Bulls use a fair few Red Bull parts but since Red Bull have started struggling that is not necessarily the boost it was in theory a year or two ago, when the close relationship between the two teams was causing concern among rivals.
In the cockpit, Hadjar, notwithstanding his crash on the formation lap in Australia, has made a strong first impression.
How was there such a big gap between Lewis Hamilton’s sprint pace and qualifying pace? Or how did the other drivers close the gap in such a short space of time? – Ash
There is a combination of reasons. Ferrari hit the ground running in China and landed on a decent set-up for sprint qualifying in the single practice session before it.
On top of that, Hamilton put in a brilliant performance on a track where he has always excelled to take pole.
But there was an element of underachievement from other teams involved.
The McLaren was the fastest car in China and Oscar Piastri was more comfortable in it than Lando Norris. Both made mistakes in sprint qualifying – so they ended up third and sixth on the grid.
Hamilton converted pole into a lead at the first corner and then used the benefit of free air to maximise his opportunity.
He drove superbly, but he was protected from Piastri for much of the race by Verstappen, who the Australian did not pass until four laps from the end, by which time Hamilton had built a lead too big to overhaul.
The teams can change their set-ups after the sprint and it looks as if, by the time of grand prix qualifying, a more natural order emerged.
As Hamilton put it: “We had a pretty decent car in the sprint, and then we made some changes to try and move forward and improve the car, but it made it quite a bit worse, basically, going into qualifying – and then it was even worse in the race.”
Among those changes seems to have been lifting the car slightly, which Hamilton more or less confirmed after the race: “I don’t know who said we lifted the car, but we made some other changes, mostly, as well as that, but not massively, just small amounts.”
They did not work – team-mate Leclerc was faster than Hamilton in the grand prix even though he had a damaged front wing. And the changes were not enough to stop Hamilton’s car wearing the skid blocks too much. Hence his disqualification.
Why do teams put a board out from the pit wall as the drivers go through; surely all information is passed by the radio or telemetry? – Phil
Pit boards are there to give non-essential information relating to the drivers – primarily laps remaining. The gap to the drivers in front and behind are often also included.
They’re also there as a back-up in case the radio fails.
Although Mohamed Salah is renowned for his role there, did you know that Gary Lineker also played on the wing while he was a player for Barcelona? Let’s just say that he made manager Johan Cruyff aware of it and didn’t like it.
Although Mohamed Salah is renowned for his role there, did you know that Gary Lineker also played on the wing while he was a player for Barcelona? Let’s just say that he made manager Johan Cruyff aware of it and didn’t like it.
Tom Williams, kneeling on one knee, runs his hand over the blades of grass. His eyes are desperately scanning as his heartbeat rises further.
It is deep in the second half of the 2009 Heineken Cup quarter-final at the Stoop. Williams ‘ team – Harlequins – are a point down.
It is the biggest match the 25-year-old has ever played in.
Harlequins are aiming to make the last four for the first time. Trying to stop them are a star-studded Leinster team featuring the likes of Brian O’Driscoll, Jamie Heaslip, Rob Kearney and Felipe Contepomi.
The stakes are sky-high and time is tight.
But Williams has a more pressing concern.
“I had taken the blood capsule out of my sock, put it in my mouth, and then tried to chew down on it”, he remembers on Sport’s Strangest Crimes: Bloodgate, a BBC Radio 5 Live podcast that delves deeper than ever into one of rugby’s most infamous scandals.
“But it fell out on to the floor. I’m red-green colour-blind. I can’t see the thing on the floor so I am searching around for it.
” It’s just the ridiculousness of it. “
A few minutes later, everyone could see it.
Williams, having found the capsule and burst it between his teeth, was led off the pitch, with strangely scarlet blood streaming from his mouth, splattering on Quins ‘ famous quartered shirt.
The convenience of Williams ‘ injury raised eyebrows and suspicions.
” Who punched Tom Williams in the mouth, Tom Williams? “said former Bath and England fly-half Stuart Barnes as he commentated on Sky Sports.
Further along in the press box, Brian Moore was working for BBC Radio.
” What a load of rubbish. That is gamesmanship at best, downright cheating at worst, “he said on air.
Down on the touchline, Leinster’s staff were making a similar point, if in stronger language.
” As it was playing out]Harlequins director of rugby] Dean Richards was on the sidelines and I had a few words with him, “says Ronan O’Donnell, the Irish side’s operations manager.
” I’d probably have to bleep a few of them out. I just told him he was cheating and he knew he was cheating. “
O’Donnell repeated his claim to one of the touchline officials.
” He showed me his fingers, “remembers O’Donnell.
” He’d got some of the ‘ blood ‘ on his fingers and it was like a Crayola marker had burst on his hands. It was that sort of texture and colour. He wasn’t happy about it either. “
Williams headed down the tunnel, surrounded by Harlequins staff. Members of the Leinster backroom followed in hot pursuit.
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Richards was asked about Williams ‘ apparent injury immediately after the match.
” He came off with a cut in his mouth and you have a right, if someone has a cut, to bring them off, “he said.
” So your conscience is clear on that one? “persisted touchline reporter Graham Simmons.
” Yes, very much so, “affirmed Richards.
The capsule was done, but the cover-up had begun.
Williams, by then, did have a cut in his mouth.
Locked in the home dressing room, while Leinster staff and match officials hammered on the door demanding entry and an explanation, he had pleaded with club doctor Wendy Chapman to use a scalpel to create a real injury in place of the fake one.
With the volume increasing outside, she reluctantly did so. A photo was taken as evidence to support Quins ‘ conspiracy.
” We were trying to win and we thought nothing of it in terms of ethics, “Williams tells Bloodgate.
” We thought we were just pushing the boundaries and doing what it took to try and get a result. “
They had failed to do so on the pitch. A limping Evans had shanked a late drop-goal and Leinster hung on to win.
Soon, they needed to do so in a boardroom.
Three months after the match, Williams, Chapman, Richards and Harlequins physio Steph Brennan were sat in the plush offices of a central London law firm.
All faced misconduct charges. And a big screen.
The screen played television pictures which had never originally been broadcast.
They showed Brennan appearing to pass something to Williams as he went on the pitch to treat another player. Williams then appeared to fold the mystery object into the top of his sock.
And then finally, a few minutes later, the wing, kneeled, retrieved it and, after dropping it on the floor, placed it back in his mouth.
The club had its defence though.
Richards had co-ordinated their accounts.
Williams, they all claimed, had been retrieving his mouthguard from his sock. His mouth was already bleeding. Chapman had applied gauze to Williams ‘ mouth, not a scalpel.
Richards called the charges against him and his club” ridiculous”, claiming that fair play was” in-built “to his coaching.
Brennan, who had bought the capsule used by Williams from a fancy dress shop in Clapham, claimed never to have seen them outside of a Halloween party.
The panel presiding over the case were suspicious, but, with Quins ‘ backroom staff sticking rigidly to their story, they couldn’t unpick the full connivance.
” It was just so obviously a lie, “says Williams”. I realised I was properly in trouble. “
When the verdict came, it landed wholly on Williams. He was banned from rugby for a year. Richards, Chapman and Brennan were all cleared, with the club handed a 250, 000 euro fine for failing to control their player.
WIlliams was, in the eyes of the adjudicating panel, a lone rogue agent.
Williams, having supposedly brought disgrace on Harlequins by independently concocting the blood capsule plan, sought advice from the Rugby Players ‘ Association.
They urged him to appeal, to blow the whistle on the whole plot.
But the club had other ideas. Williams was offered a new two-year deal, three years of guaranteed employment at the club once he had retired and a promise to help him build a career outside of rugby.
He just had to hold back on the real story. He had to be a team-mate once more. He had to protect the club that meant so much to them all.
The full extent of the plot, the complicity of the club’s medical staff and coaches, couldn’t come out.
” They said to me ‘ do you understand the impact of this decision you’re about to make? If you come forward and show this, Harlequins will be kicked out of Europe, your friends ‘ playing opportunities for their countries will be reduced, Steph and Wendy will be struck off, we’ll lose sponsors we’ll lose money’, “Williams remembers.
” Playing rugby was all I wanted to do and all I felt that I could do.
“So I was stuck between coming forward and telling the truth and falling on my sword. And I didn’t know what to do”.
“I’d have taken the rap”, Ugo Monye, Williams ‘ team-mate at the time, tells Bloodgate. “With the deal that was supposedly being offered, 100%”.
The pressure was extreme.
Harlequins were desperate to contain a toxic scandal. Banned and branded a cheat, Williams wanted to tell the truth, explain his actions and rescue his rugby dreams.
At one point, he asked for more money in exchange for his silence, £390, 000 to pay off his mortgage and a four-year contract. Quins refused.
In a statement from the time Quins chairman Charles Jillings described Williams ‘ demands as “exorbitant” and “shocking”. He insisted that “under no circumstances was the financial proposal a reward for Tom’s silence”.
“I’d sunk to rock bottom”, says Williams. “It was a catastrophic period from a personal standpoint”.
And all the time, the clock was ticking.
Williams had one month to appeal against his ban, to go public and get his career back on track.
Two days before the window to appeal shut, an email landed in Williams inbox.
He wasn’t the only one considering an appeal. The European Cup organisers too were unhappy that he was the only person found guilty. They knew there must be more to the case.
The chances of one young player coming up with such a scheme on his own and carrying it out in secret in the tight and tightly-controlled environment of a professional club were remote.
They wrote to tell Williams they were to appeal against Richards, Brennan and Chapman being cleared. They would call him as a witness, cross-examine him and, if he didn’t comply, level a second misconduct charge at him.
“His face literally just went white”, remembers Alex, Williams ‘ girlfriend at the time, now wife.
A final summit meeting with the Harlequins hierarchy was called.
Tom and Alex drove to the Surrey home of one of the club’s board. Drinks and snacks were laid out, but the conversation soon turned to business.
“We were going round and round in circles”, remembers Tom.
“Harlequins were saying to me, if I fell on my sword, for want of a better term, they would guarantee me future employment, pay off some of my mortgage, pay for me to go on sabbatical and we’ll guarantee my girlfriend’s future employment.
” On the other hand, if I came forward and told the truth they said l would bury the club. “
Frustrated, stressed and tired after three hours of back and forth, Alex excused herself for a cigarette break. As she stubbed it out and prepared to go back into the meeting, she saw Tom coming in the opposite direction.
He had given up. He would run away, leave the country, turn his back on rugby, start again – anything to get out of this situation.
Alex hadn’t finished though. She wanted to ask one more question of the 13 men in the room.
She walked back in.
” I remember the surprise on their faces when it was just me standing there, “she says.
” I said ‘ I’m really sorry to bother you again, but do you mind if I just have you for a couple more minutes? I just want to ask you all individually one question’.
“I went round and I actually pointed to every single person and I just said, ‘ Is this Tom’s fault? ‘ And each of them gave a resounding no. Every single one of them”.
“Alex humanised me again, because I had dehumanised myself, Harlequins had dehumanised me”, says Tom.
“I was a pawn by that point, and I was ready to be moved in any way that anyone pushed me.
” She was the person from outside of this tight rugby centric-environment who could cut through that.
Early the next morning, Tom got a phone call.
Richards had resigned. Harlequins said they would support Williams telling the truth and accept the fall-out.
The game was up. The cover-up would be uncovered. The truth would change lives.
At a hearing in Glasgow, Williams told the full story.
Richards admitted instructing physio Brennan to carry the blood capsules in his medical bag “just in case”. He was judged to be the “directing mind” of the Bloodgate plot and banned from rugby for three years.
Brennan admitted buying the fake blood in advance and was described as Richards ‘ “willing lieutenant”. He was banned from the sport for two years and a dream job working with England, all lined up, was gone.
Harlequins ‘ club doctor Chapman was referred to the General Medical Council. By cutting open Tom’s mouth, she had contravened a central principle of medicine to “do no harm”.
She said she was “ashamed” and “horrified” by what she had done, but she had an unlikely supporter.
Arthur Tanner – the Leinster doctor that day at the Stoop, one of those incensed by Tom’s fake injury – spoke up for her.
“When it transpired that she had been forced and coerced into doing it I really felt very, very sorry for her because I realised there was going to be a difficult two or three years ahead of her”, he said.
Tom, who had pleaded with Chapman to cut his mouth, also supported her, telling the hearing she is “as much a victim in all this as me”.
“It’s a huge regret of mine… putting her in a position where she felt she had no other option but to do it”, says Tom.
Chapman was cleared to return to medicine.
Of the quartet though, Williams was the only one to stay at Harlequins.
At the first game of the following season, some opposition fans turned up dressed as vampires.
He was targeted on the pitch, with opposing players aiming taunts, and sometimes punches, at him.
There was no sanctuary in the home dressing room either.
“A number of my team-mates would have been loyal to Dean Richards and felt that I’d betrayed not only him, but also them as a club”, remembers Williams.
“It definitely impacted them, there was definitely a level of distrust, probably dislike as well”.
Williams became a quieter, sadder, slower presence. The zip was gone from his game, the smile was gone from his face.
It seemed he was just playing out his contract, an unwanted reminder of the past as Harlequins built an exciting new team under new boss Conor O’Shea during the 2011-12 season.
“I’d lost every morsel of confidence that I possibly could have had”, remembers Williams.
“I wasn’t in the team. I was just that person around training who had done something in the past”.
But, after a starring cameo in a win over French giants Toulouse, something reignited in Williams ‘ game.
The season ended with Harlequins winning their first Premiership crown in the Twickenham sun, with Williams scoring the first try in front of Alex and their young son.
“It’s curious how sport works, how life works out”, says Williams.
But you can also go in the opposite direction.
Williams played for Harlequins until 2015 when moved on to the coaching staff. In 2019, he left rugby to pursue a career in consultancy.
“About five years ago, I was diagnosed with depression and anxiety, and I suspect that it came from this event”, he says.
“I’ve been on medication ever since, and I struggle on a day-to-day basis.
” My initial impression is always to trust, and that got me in trouble in the first place – but it’s how I operate best. I try and see the best in people.
“I try and see the best in everyone involved. And I wish them the best because there’s no point holding on to it.
” Ultimately, it was a game of sport, but it did mean everything to me at the time.
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” I am very, very happy now. I’ve got three children who are healthy and happy, and I feel like I’m building a life for myself that isn’t identified by a moment in time in 2009. “
Escaping the taint of what spilled from the capsule and cut that day has been hard for all involved.