Shane Williams shares hilarious Warren Gatland story following win over England

Former Wales rugby player Shane Williams has shared a hilarious story about getting in a spot of trouble with coach Warren Gatland.

The winger, who is Wales’ record try scorer, shared the tale of the drunken shenanigans, which involved crashing a wedding party, after Wales beat England in the 2008 Six Nations on the Welsh language rugby show Jonathan on S4C.

In the interview, Williams said: “I loved Gats and I believe he loved me in the end.”

But the relationship didn’t get off to a smooth start, after he was told by a teammate that he had drunkenly challenged his head coach to a fight.

He was told by Gatland to go out and enjoy himself after the victory against England, which he may have done a bit too much.

He said: “After the game Gats liked to have a pint to celebrate. He said to the boys ‘enjoy the night, have a couple of pints’, so you say that to me, and I have a few more than a couple of pints.

“We had Pimm’s and lemonade at Twickers, and we came back to the Vale. There was a party upstairs, a wedding party, I think. Then people like Mike Philips, Lee Byrne, James Hook, Gavin Henson said ‘come on, let’s go up for a wander’, so I chucked my bag in the reception and we all went up and had a couple of pints.”

‘Crashed wedding’

After having crashed a wedding party with his teammates the night before, he woke up the next morning still in his clothes, and not remembering much of what happened.

He said: “Next thing I remember I wake up in the morning, fully clothed, and I thought to myself ‘right I don’t remember much from last night but I’m ok. I’ve still got my clothes’. It was a good sign I think.”

He was told by his teammate Tom Shanklin that he had phoned Warren Gatland the night before and challenged him to a fight.

He said: “We went to the recovery pool in the morning and I jumped into the hot tub and I saw Tom Shanklin just staring at me. He asked ‘do you remember last night? You called Warren Gatland out for a fight’.

Shane rushed over in a state of panic to profusely apologise to his coach.

He said: “So, I thought s**t. I jumped out of the hot tub, went straight to Warren Gatland’s office. ‘Gats I’m really sorry about last night. I don’t remember anything about what I said. I’m so sorry’.

Gatland asked him: “Shane, Shane, Shane, chill out, calm down, what you on about?”

Shane was then told by Gatland to sit down and they had a chat about the game, the games that were coming up and about winning the Grand Slam.

“Right, I have to go now because I have an interview in 10 minutes. But if you call me a fat, useless kiwi t**t again, you’ll never play for Wales!” Gatland added.