Some players have to wait until they pack in playing before

they are acclaimed as great. It is something to do with people

not knowing what they've got until it's gone, to adapt a line

from Joni Mitchell.

Shane Williams is different.

His career still has time to run, yet he is acknowledged by

almost all and sundry as one of Wales's all-time best

players.

There may still be certain individuals who doubt Williams's

claim to true greatness. But if there are, they have become

increasingly quiet on the matter since the events of last

summer.

The little Osprey had routed all-comers in the Six Nations.

But in South Africa he was booked to face not only Bryan Habana

but also Tonderai Chavhanga - the fast show in green and gold,

Habana with a 10.3 seconds time for 100 metres and his mate

even quicker at 10.2 secs over the same distance.

Yet Williams emerged in triumph by some distance.

Wales may have lost the series 2-0 but their all-time try

record holder hugely embellished his reputation.

In the first Test in Bloemfontein he produced a marvellous

body swerve that left Habana clutching thin air and in a heap

on the floor.

And in the game in Pretoria a week later he gathered the

ball on halfway, then swept past John Smit before veering clear

of four defenders en route to scoring in the corner.

The touchdown was Williams's 14th in 11 Tests for Wales in

the 2007-08 season, hoisting his tally past Gareth Thomas at

the head of the all-time try chart.

But to talk about Williams merely in terms of stats is to do

him a disservice.

With his devastating sidestep and electric pace over 30

metres, allied to a predatory instinct for tries, he has been

Welsh rugby's great entertainer during a decade at the top.

His back catalogue of tries, including the one for Neath

against Cardiff which Lyn Jones described as the best at The

Gnoll in 100 years, can compare with anyone's.

As Shaun Edwards declared during last season's Six Nations -

what a player.