Everyone seems to forget that 90% of the coaching team­ is from the Welsh setup and they are obviously not­ shouting his cause because Geech is not stupid enough­ not to listern to the people he hired. There is no­ doubt that he is a class act but he has been out of­ form since midway through the 6 nations and has shown­ no way near his potential against average opposition on­ this tour. People need to forget about him being picked­ unless he shows 2008 type form and then I think he will­ still struggle because you can't select a guy of­ the back of one game, when 3 other guys have been­ performing consistantly better than him. Woodward made­ this same selection faux pas with Wilkinson on the 2005­ tour and got slated for not picking the form players.­ Geech will not pick on reputation, he never has and I­ doubt he ever will, just ask Cipriani!

he's a class act, but he only seems to really­ shine in a team that are on fire as well (eg. wales in­ 2008). since wales went off the boil a bit he seems to­ try too hard to make things happen on his own, and­ reading this article id say he'll do the same again­ tomorrow. He needs to simplify his game a bit and stop­ looking for a try off every ball. He'd score more­ that way. Still if there was ever a time to hit his­ best form again its around about now.

it must be the curse of getting player of the year­ award,the same happened to bryan habana when he won it­ aswell also other players from past years have had a­ loss of for after winning

Shane is a genuine world-class act. The South Africans­ would have been absolutely delighted not to see his­ name on the team sheet for the first test (imagine our­ reaction if their team sheet was missing the name­ Habana?).
Pre-tour, Shane would have been the 3rd name­ on the sheet (after POC and BOD), and if it had been­ Wales playing, Shane would have played.
However it is­ precisely the totally unique scenario that is "The­ Lions", where the sensitivities of the touring­ squad and the four supporting nations come in to play,­ that made McGeechan decide to use the previous tour­ matches as trials for the first test (no doubt keen to­ avoid Clive Woodward's failures in New Zealand,­ where he picked his old guard in preference to guys in­ form).
Ok, fair enough, i'll concede that in light­ of this, I can understand why Shane wasn't picked,­ but the rules of the game must now change. Round One is­ over, and we lost!!
Round two is a MUST win match!­ There are no more chances. I would go as far to say,­ that to now NOT select a player of the proven calibre­ of Shane Williams (irrespective of what happens vs the­ Emerging Boks on Tues) would be a selection error on­ the part of the coaching team. Can they risk Shane­ shining in a dead rubber 3rd test?

im sure that you know shane has played a lot at scrum­ half including odd times when injuries occured for­ wales,I prefer him as the wales record try scorer, out­ wide is where his real strength lies,Also he has played­ in an era with peel ,howley ,phillips .I would love him­ to come on next week and put habana on his backside yet­ again.

Come on Shane get it together and show us (and Monye)­ what a great finisher you are!!!!
COME ON­ LIONS!!!!!!!!!

Had Shane WILLIAMS got the ball as Ugo MONYE did at­ Durban I have no doubt he would have scored. Good luck­ Shane for Pretoria!

I still think Shane would have been a fantastic­ srum-half!