Nice article about Shane Williams

I agree with the article. There's not many people now much under 5ft10, or under 13stone. And if we're not counting scrum halves, we can add a couple of inches and stone to those minimum figures.

You used to think 'jeez, guys like Banahan, Jamie Roberts, Bastareaud, you'd hate to come across a team with them in'. These days, you get whole backlines like that. Wales have Jamie Roberts, Jon Davies, George North. If you look at the other options we've been developing - Tom Prydie, Tom James - they've all been selected for their size.

The only other winger I can think of in the same mould as Shane would be the South African who never starts a match. And you've got Matthew Morgan at the Ospreys at flyhalf but I'm not sure how far he'll get in his career. I don't think anyone will hit the same heights as Shane. It'll take an absolutely remarkable talent to displace the bigger boys. Shane had that incredible talent.

Great try today and a nice way for a legend to sign off.

Yeah, shame about the other 79 minutes though. Well, all the damage was done in about 15 minutes to be fair!

On a more Shane-related note: Ridiculously skilled individual. Some of his tries were beyond outrageous - think the Springbok try where he tied 4 defenders in knots (and even some of the ones that were given though are still contentious - that Scotland try). 58 test tries (in 87 tests) if I have my figures correct. Is/was he the most prolific try scorer for the amount of possession and space he was given? Would he have broken more records if he was playing in a better team?

And I'm falling victim to the 'what-ifs in Welsh Rugby'...

"Would he have broken more records if he was playing in a better team? "

Its an interesting question. but then if he was in a better team perhaps there would have been more competition for his place and he could have ended scoring less.

For me the high point of the game today was not his try but his try saving tackle earlier. I thought that was ace.

Yeah, agreed. I remember when he made that tackle, it's a shame those don't make it into the record books. Although for me, I'll always have a mental replay available of him wrapping up donkey Banahan on his charge to the tryline in August. That was classic littlest man on the pitch humiliating the biggest.

I was debating that Ding, as another element to the hypothetical questions going round in my head - which countries would be happy to swap one of their wingers for Shane? Probably not as many as me and my countrymen would like to believe. But the point I was trying to make, is that a lot of the tries he scored, and in more than a few cases created, would not be done by any other individual. It's not like Wales gave him all those opportunities on a plate.

Incredible player. Undoubtedly a very special talent and who will hopefully be remembered and talked about by future players and watchers.

Not without his flaws (he did have instances where he'd try too hard and force silly mistakes, and he wasn't 100% on taking the ball into contact) but considering people said he was a defensive liability or was bad under the high-ball, I think in many cases he was underated because of his size.

Going back to the original point of your article - Shane was able to play, defend and take the high ball as if he was a good 6 inches taller than he really was. That's because he was a remarkable talent. I'm not sure if there are any others out there like that, and because of that I do expect 99% of internationals to fit the growing mould of bigger is better.