Seeing the confirmation that Wales wing Shane Williams will retire after his side’s friendly Test against Australia next month makes me hope there is a lesson there for England’s selectors.

I’ve often had the discussion with people that if Shane was English, would he have played as much international rugby as he did?

He would probably have had a run, but we’ve had a player of similar stature and good ability – namely James Simpson-Daniel at Gloucester – who has rarely had a look-in. If Shane Williams was English, we would have said he was too small but the game will miss him when he retires.

Every time he got the ball, the crowd felt that things would happen.

I took the opportunity to watch some local rugby last weekend as I caught up with Bath side Walcot – the team I used to coach – at Trowbridge and the outcome reminded me a bit of my time there.

Walcot were 16-11 up in injury time when they chose to run the ball, got turned over and Trowbridge scored before landing the winning conversion from the touchline.

It was a good local derby and although it was tough on Walcot to lose out, fair play to Trowbridge for sneaking it at the end.

Another team to manage a narrow victory were Bath, who won at London Irish with a late kick.

It’s not that often that you get away wins in the Aviva Premiership and that was the sort of game Bath would have lost last year.

With the season structured the way it is with play-offs at the end, the second half of the season is what it’s all about and Bath just need to make sure they are there or thereabouts and peaking at the right time.

This period of the season has been good to them. They have blooded a number of young players and, with the likes of Lewis Moody coming back from the World Cup, the squad looks a lot stronger as they prepare for the visit of the leaders Harlequins on Saturday.

Quins have been in great form so far but, as I’ve mentioned, the important thing is to be in good form towards the business end of the season.