Lloyd Williams announces retirement from rugby at end of the season

Worcester Warriors can today confirm that scrum-half Lloyd Williams will retire from rugby at the end of the 2025/26 season.

Williams joined the Warriors from Ealing Trailfinders and has featured twenty times in a Worcester shirt so far, crossing for six tries.

Before the Warriors and Ealing, Lloyd played for thirteen years at his boyhood club Cardiff, running out 261 times - a club record for appearances.

While at Cardiff, he won the European Challenge Cup in 2018 as well as captaining the side on several occasions - something he has also done twice for Worcester this season.

On the international stage, Lloyd represented the Barbarians against his home country of Wales in June 2011 before being drafted into the Welsh training squad for the 2011 Rugby World Cup. He went on to make his international debut in August of that year in a win over Argentina.

He featured in both the 2011 and 2015 World Cups, setting up the decisive try for Gareth Davies in a famous Welsh win over England at Twickenham in the 2015 edition.

In total, Lloyd won 32 caps for his country, winning three Six Nations titles, including a Grand Slam in 2012.

Speaking on his decision, Lloyd said, "It’s kind of a heart and head decision, the heart tells me to keep on playing, but my head is saying I need to start looking after my body and start focusing on the next chapter.”

“I’ve had a fantastic year here at Worcester, it’s something I’m really proud of and will look back with a lot of fond memories.”

“The fact that this year will be my lasting memory of professional sport as a player is seriously special, the Bath game is up there as one of my favourite memories in rugby.”

“To see the fans turn up the way they did, the way we showed up – the whole occasion was pretty special, and I really did have goosebumps running out here at Sixways. And the fans here, they deserved that moment.”

On Lloyd, Warriors Head Coach Matt Everard said, “Lloyd has had a huge influence on Worcester Warriors – from the way we are as a group, the way we behave with each other, the way we speak to each other -  the whole feeling of the club, the playing group and the staff, he’s been a huge part of that.”

"He's also had a very big influence on me personally, supporting me massively in the role - I'm very grateful for Lloydy for that and for how helpful he's been to me"

“He’s someone who exuberates high performance, how deliberate he is in all his practice and all his training, every little bit of his day he just maximises, and you can see why he’s had the career he’s had.”

“I was there at Twickenham that day when he kicked that left-footed grubber for Wales to score that knocked England out of a home World Cup, and that’s just one small, magnified example of his skill-set and ability to come on out of position and do that in the heat of the moment.”