At this stage is believed that Williams also suffered a heart attack.

Williams was 49 years old. He is the fourth player of the class of ’95 to have died after the flank, Ruben Kruger, the scrumhalf Joost van der Westhuizen and winger, Small.

Williams represented Western Province in 63 matches from 1991 to 1998. In played in 27 Tests for the Springboks, and scored a total of 14 tries.

He was the first non-white player to be included in the Springboks squad since Errol Tobias and his uncle Avril Williams in the early 1980s.

Apart from winning the World Cup in ’95, his most notable achievement in the green-and-gold was scoring four tries against Samoa during the quarter-finals in the same tournament.

After retiring from rugby, Williams got involved in coaching and was at the helm of among other the Blitzboks, the Cats, Uganda, Tunisia, RCM Timisoara and more recently UWC in the Varsity Cup.

@MorganPiek OFM Sport