Cardiff Blues’ Guinness PRO14 victory over Toyota Cheetahs capped off a special week for double centurion, Lloyd Williams.
The scrum half captained his home region to victory on his 200th appearance, becoming only the second player to reach the milestone.
Williams, who was surprised pre-match as his family presented him with his match jersey, says he’ll be able to reflect on the day with fondness and was grateful to the squad for making it a week to remember.
“I was very grateful to have my father, mum and my two sisters in the changing room before the game,” said the Welsh international.
“It was great because they’ve been my biggest fans over the years and I owe a lot to them.
“The fact that they came to present me with my jersey was fitting.
“My debut doesn’t feel that long ago, but it is. The club has had some ups-and-down, but those downs have made the ups even better.
“Tonight was especially nice because we won because it will be nice to look back at today and remember I had a victory on my 200th game. I’m really pleased with that.
“I’m really lucky to be involved with a great bunch of lads. I’m not one for a fuss, but to be fair they did make a fuss of me this week.
“It doesn’t happen all the time, but I’m grateful that the lads and everyone here at Cardiff Blues made it a really special experience for myself and my family.
“I’ve never been so nervous before a game! Nerves is always a good thing and I just wanted it go well for us as a team and I’m really happy about that.”
The win saw Wales’ Capital Region get back on track following a four-game losing streak.
The 29-year-old was proud of his side’s display in the wind and rain at Cardiff Arms Park, and also praised the performance of man-of-the-match, Jarrod Evans.
The scrum half added: “I thought we played really well. That’s what I told the boys afterwards - we won but our performance was also really good.
“In the first half we imposed ourselves on them and came out as the best version of ourselves, which is great.
“They had a red card, and you could say that affected the game, but we were in a good place in that game, and they grabbed two fairly random tries.
“Cheetahs are so good at those breaks, and we were aware that could’ve happened, but I’m just glad we won in the way we play best at.
“I’d like to think we can kick on from this. Up until now I don’t think we’ve performed the way we’d like to, hence why the results haven’t been there.
“But now we have a game we can refer back to and use as a benchmark, and reflect on why we were good.
“Jarrod is a great player and we’re lucky to have a really talented back line. We spoke during the week that, if we were physical up-front then we’d owe it to the forwards to play well.
“We did that tonight, and the forwards allowed us to play nice things out of the back and Jarrod led that well.”