Williams grateful to Gloucester after Lions call-up

Wales scrum-half Tomos Williams says he does not think he would have been called up to the British and Irish Lions squad if he had not been playing for Gloucester this season.

The number nine moved to the Cherry and Whites last summer from Cardiff Rugby and has been one of their stand-out players, making 23 appearances in all competitions so far.

Williams was one of three scrum-halves, along with Ireland's Jamison Gibson-Park and England's Alex Mitchell, selected by head coach Andy Farrell.

"I don't think I'd be in this position if it wasn't for Gloucester," Williams told BBC Radio Gloucestershire.

"I said before I'm grateful for the coaches, Lights [attack coach James Lightfoot Brown], Dom [defence coach Waldouck] and Skivs [director of rugby George Skivington] for allowing me to play the way we play at Gloucester.

"Coming here this season has helped me massively."

Williams' arrival in Gloucester has been instrumental in helping transform the club into one of the most potent attacking sides in the league this season.

He has scored eight Premiership tries and assisted another eight, made 23 line breaks, tops the standings for most passes (845), second for kick metres (4,246) and sits in the top five overall for offloads (19) in stats provided by Oval.

His ball-handling trickery has also caught the eye - against Bristol he collected the ball in the air before a no-look pass set up Seb Atkinson to score under the post.

The 30-year-old, who has 64 caps for Wales, was the final name to be called out at the selection ceremony in London last Thursday and said the news took a couple of hours to sink in.

"It's so special. That's why I think it's such an achievement. I'm so grateful for the opportunity. It's the pinnacle of rugby, so I'm immensely proud and grateful," he said.

Williams is one of just two Welshman in the 38-player squad for the summer series in Australia, along with back row Jac Morgan - the lowest number picked for the squad in the modern era.

Yet Williams said he hoped the duo will represent the Welsh flag "strongly".

"I'm massively proud of Jac and really happy for Jac, he's such a good player. You've seen that throughout the last couple of years and he's such a good bloke," Williams said.

"Hopefully we can represent Wales strongly and they'll be proud of us."