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Harry Williams to reunite with Exeter teammate after Montpellier exit
By Neil Fissler
Former England tighthead Harry Williams has joined his former Exeter Chiefs teammate Joe Simmonds at Top 14 outfit Pau less than a week after he was released by Montpellier.
The 32-year-old Londoner’s exit from the GGL Stadium stadium wasn’t entirely unexpected as he had fallen out of favour with club owner Mohed Altrad, who replaced him with a convicted domestic abuser, Wilfrid Hounkpatin.
Williams had been due to be under contract to Montpellier, who narrowly avoided being relegated to the Pro D2 by the skin of their teeth for another season but joins a growing band of England players at Pau.
Former England scrumhalf Dan Robson, 32, was the first to move to Stade du Hameau in November 2022 after Wasps went out of business. He was joined by Simmonds last summer.
They are both due to be under contract to Pau until next summer and Williams joins after making 13 appearances for Montpellier in all competitions in his first season in France after leaving the Chiefs.
Williams was capped 19 times by England, made 162 appearances for the Devon outfit, and was a member of the side that won Gallagher Premiership and Investec Champions Cup titles in 2020.
He started his career with Wasps before moving to Exeter in 2015 after loan spells at Nottingham and Jersey Reds and is the second Englishmen signed by Pau this summer.
And makes a quartet of Englishmen, with former Saracens and England U20 lock Joel Kpoku joining from Lyon. He made 50 appearances after leaving the former Premiership champions three years ago.
Williams had been linked with a possible move back to the Premiership with Saracens and Sale Sharks, who were both looking for another tighthead but will be remaining in France at least until the end of next season.
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I think we need to get innovative with the new laws.
Now red cards are only 20 minutes, Razor should send Finau on a head hunting mission to hospitalise their 10 with a shoulder to the chops.
Give the conspiracy theorists a win.
Go to commentsEngland played well enough to win but couldnt score when they needed to and couldnt defend a couple of X-Factor moments from Telea which was ultimately the difference. They needed to hold the ball more and make the AB's make more tackles. Territorially they were good for the first 60. Defending their lead and playing pragmatic rugby in the last 20 was silly. The AB's always had the potential to come back. England still have a long way to go, definite progress would have been shown had they won but it seems they are still stuck where they were shortly after the six nations and their tour to NZ
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