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Shock move sees ex-Wales star Owen Williams set for French third division
By Francisco Isaac
Stade Niçois may be relegated from the French Pro D2, but the Côte d’Azur side isn’t slowing down when it comes to signings for next season, with the Ospreys’ Owen Williams set to join the club.
The six-cap Wales international will leave the Ospreys in June, marking his fifth stint abroad. Williams has previously played for English Premiership clubs Leicester Tigers, Gloucester, and Worcester, as well as a short spell in Japan with the NTT Docomo Red Hurricanes.
The utility back began his professional career with the Scarlets before moving to England, spending nearly seven years in the Premiership. He made his Test debut in 2017, starting at centre against Australia and New Zealand during the Autumn Internationals.
Williams returned to Welsh rugby in 2022 when he signed with the Ospreys, nearly a decade after his final appearance for the Scarlets. Over the past three seasons, he made 27 starts in the United Rugby Championship, but his time in Wales has now come to an end.
Williams becomes Nice’s fourth signing for next season, joining Spanish scrum-half Guillaume Rouet, Romanian centre Atila Septar, and Fijian legend Waisea Nayacalevu. More arrivals are expected to be announced in the coming months.
Stade Niçois has been targeting high-profile players since the arrival of Jean-Baptiste Aldigé, the former Biarritz Olympique chairman. Aldigé led Biarritz from 2018 to 2024 but left the club in serious financial trouble, eventually selling it for €1 to a consortium led by Shaun Hegarty, Flip Van Der Merwe, and Marc Baget.
Stade Niçois currently sits in last place and will almost certainly be relegated to the Nationale (third division) for the 2025/2026 season. However, Aldigé is already focused on securing promotion back to the Pro D2.
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Latest Comments
Well lets hope so. England have developed a very strong kicking game and I'm all for them going to it on a regular basis to get into the right areas of the field but they need to find the right balance. They've been far too predictable and far too low risk. Tindall recently summed up my thoughts on this... “rugby is a pressure game, it's about building phases”. Against Scotland they almost never went over 2 phases, it was super weird. None of the top 4 sides are playing in this manner, I don't see where the precedent is for this staccato style of play. We've got an exceptional group of loose forwards developing, let's make use of that quick ball! Hopefully the Welsh game is a turning point and the coaches will trust the players to take a few more risks. It's not that I have anything against kicking in test matches, it's absolutely essential that we kick well but we do that already, it's the rest of the attack which has been missing. This relentless kicking isn't the way the best sides win test matches these days. Kick well, kick lots but we need to be setup to take advantage of quick ball and defensive misalignments around the halfway line and we need to build pressure by going multiphase in the 22 instead of grubber kicking it or crossfielding with such high regularity.
Go to commentsAgreed, seen far too many false dawns as an England fan and here are still far too many question marks over Borthwick and his coaching team. The Scotland and Ireland performances were still poor, even if we managed to stay on the right side of the scoreboard on one of them. France game we were fortunate but we at least played well
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