Ronwen Williams hopes for second bite at the cherry

Brazilian superstar Neymar netted a hat-trick on the way to a bruising 5-0 crushing at FNB Stadium in March, in what would be a forgetful first outing for the SuperSport United gloveman.

“Hopefully I can get a game because the last game I played, we know what happened, it wasn’t a good result for me, my first cap,” Williams said in Auckland on Wednesday, ahead of Bafana’s international friendly against the All Whites.

“So I want to put that behind me. Hopefully I can get a run.”

Williams’s wish may be granted following Gordon Igesund’s comments on Monday that he was planning to rotate his squad and give everybody in the 17-man tour group a run.

Senzo Meyiwa was preferred for Bafana’s international friendly against Australia’s Socceroos on Monday, conceding to Tim Cahill after South Africa had taken the lead through Ayanda Patosi less than 90 seconds prior.

Despite the goal, Meyiwa showed moments of brilliance between the posts and would be an obvious and uncontested choice for the second game on tour, having done more than enough to secure his place.

But with rotation in mind, with the aim to blood youngsters for future Bafana teams, Williams looked favourite to take up the gloves at Mt Park Stadium on Friday evening.

Williams admitted the Brazil result had not gone to plan, but felt he gained priceless experience and learnt plenty of lessons from his first game in what was a productive exercise for the 22-year-old.

“I wouldn’t say it was tough, there were just a lot of things that I learnt [from the Brazil game],” Williams said.

“If you look in the PSL (Premier Soccer League) as a goalkeeper, I only see action once or twice in 10 minutes. In that game, it was like every minute, so that’s what I learnt and that’s what I saw.

“I grew up wanting to play for my country, so if I look back at it, my first cap against Brazil, there isn’t a better way to start than that.”

Williams is part of a so-called “makeshift” outfit which travelled to Australasia and if local media are to be believed, Bafana would be battling to field a competitive side against a team ranked no fewer than 46 places below South Africa, occupying a lowly 111th place in the world rankings.

The squad, however, has been tipped to form the core of South Africa’s new group of youngsters, who were tasked with ushering in a new era for the country’s perennial under-achieving national team.

Focus on the group of 17 has quickly changed from being a team patched together as a result of a squad ravaged by injuries and player withdrawals, to a team brimming with confidence and hungry for action in an ageing national pool in desperate need of rejuvenation from the younger ranks.

“It’s always nice to have fresh faces in the team. They want to play, they want to be here, it’s an honour to be part of this team,” Williams, himself part of the new face-lift, explained.

“It’s a good change, it’s a balanced team, mixed with a few overseas, as well as PSL players.

“For me, I’d say it’s almost a perfect team.”

– Sapa