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Harry Williams to reunite with Exeter teammate after Montpellier exit

(Photo by Dan Mullan/The RFU Collection via Getty Images)

Former England tighthead Harry Williams has joined his former Exeter Chiefs teammate Joe Simmonds at Top 14 outfit Pau less than a week after he was released by Montpellier.

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The 32-year-old Londoner’s exit from the GGL Stadium stadium wasn’t entirely unexpected as he had fallen out of favour with club owner Mohed Altrad, who replaced him with a convicted domestic abuser, Wilfrid Hounkpatin.

Williams had been due to be under contract to Montpellier, who narrowly avoided being relegated to the Pro D2 by the skin of their teeth for another season but joins a growing band of England players at Pau.

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      Former England scrumhalf Dan Robson, 32, was the first to move to Stade du Hameau in November 2022 after Wasps went out of business. He was joined by Simmonds last summer.

      They are both due to be under contract to Pau until next summer and Williams joins after making 13 appearances for Montpellier in all competitions in his first season in France after leaving the Chiefs.

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      Williams was capped 19 times by England, made 162 appearances for the Devon outfit, and was a member of the side that won Gallagher Premiership and Investec Champions Cup titles in 2020.

      He started his career with Wasps before moving to Exeter in 2015 after loan spells at Nottingham and Jersey Reds and is the second Englishmen signed by Pau this summer.

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      And makes a quartet of Englishmen, with former Saracens and England U20 lock Joel Kpoku joining from Lyon. He made 50 appearances after leaving the former Premiership champions three years ago.

      Williams had been linked with a possible move back to the Premiership with Saracens and Sale Sharks, who were both looking for another tighthead but will be remaining in France at least until the end of next season.

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      N
      NB 1 hour ago
      Why Les Kiss and Stuart Lancaster can lead Australia to glory

      https://www.london.edu/think/how-claudio-ranieri-transformed-leicester-city


      He jts knew how to use that deep well of knowledge accumulate over many years of management. A true Moneyball story!

      167 Go to comments
      f
      fl 1 hour ago
      Why Les Kiss and Stuart Lancaster can lead Australia to glory

      “Two comparable achievements 15 years apart (at different clubs in different leagues) represent failure and not continued success for an elite level coach/manager? Not even a hint of consistency? Just gradual, inevitable decline? And all because he is in his sixth decade?”

      Why don’t you try reading what I wrote before you start inventing a load of other random things that I didn’t say. I said “Pep hasn’t gotten better with age”. He hasn’t. I don’t think he’s got much worse, and yeah, he’s been fairly consistent over his career and has had more success than almost any other coach. But he hasn’t gotten better.


      “You’ve missed that Mourinho’s early start in football was as a translator for Bobby Robson (ironically a much older manager at the time!).”

      I was actually aware of that. I didn’t mention it because it wasn’t relevant to the fact that Mourinho - aged 52 - had more experience than Arteta does at 43. It also isn’t ironic that Bobby Robson was a much older manager at the time - it actually confirms by point that a lot of the top football managers used to be older than they are today.


      “You suggested that Les Kiss would not be suited to an international coaching role because of his age profile…that seemed to relate to rugby”

      That did relate to rugby. Let me walk you through the thread…


      NB suggested that Les Kiss should become Australia head coach in 2027.

      I said: “Given the drop off so many top coaches seem to experience as they get older (e.g. Jones, Gatland) Kiss could be a riskier appointment than you’d think!”

      NB said: “Drawing a parallel with the NFL and NBA, plenty of coaches stay well into their 70’s”

      I said: “Not all sports are going the same way though” then gave the example of football.


      The example of football was introduced in order to make the point that the age profile of managers is not the same in every sport. If you had read the thread you were replying to you would know this!

      167 Go to comments
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