Portrait of Shane Williams

Birthday profile

Shane Williams

Shane Williams, Welsh rugby union player

Born
February 26, 1977
Age in 2026
49
Zodiac sign
Pisces
Birth year
1977

About Shane Williams

Shane Mark Williams, (born 26 February 1977) is a Welsh former rugby union player most famous for his long and successful tenure as a wing for the Ospreys and the Wales national team. He also played scrum-half on occasion. Williams is the record try scorer for Wales, and fourth on the international list of leading rugby union test try scorers behind Daisuke Ohata, Bryan Habana and David Campese. In 2008, Williams was selected as the World Rugby Player of the Year, then known as the IRB Player of the Year. Since his retirement from international rugby in 2012, Williams has worked as a presenter on S4C's Six Nations rugby programme Y Clwb Rygbi Rhyngwladol, and as a pundit on BBC, ITV and Channel 4 broadcasts as well as third party shows such as "Inside Welsh Rugby", commenting on the grassroots of Welsh rugby. Williams was selected to the Barbarians squad that played Wales in June 2012. It was originally planned to be his last appearance as a player, but he shortly thereafter signed a one-year contract to play in Japan with Mitsubishi Sagamihara DynaBoars in June 2012. Williams was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2012 Birthday Honours for services to rugby. Williams extended his stay in Japan several times, taking on a role as player-coach and turning down an offer from French Top 14 side Toulon in the process. Before finally announcing he would be returning home at the end of the 2014–15 Japanese Top League season. In November 2016, Williams was inducted into the World Rugby Hall of Fame during opening ceremonies for the Hall's first physical home in Rugby, Warwickshire.

Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.

Shane Williams timeline

  1. Shane Mark Williams, (born 26 February 1977) is a Welsh former rugby union player most famous for his long and successful tenure as a wing for the Ospreys and the Wales national team.
  2. In November 2016, Williams was inducted into the World Rugby Hall of Fame during opening ceremonies for the Hall's first physical home in Rugby, Warwickshire.

The world when Shane Williams was born

Shane Williams was born in 1977. The year snapshot below places that birthday in its cultural and historical setting: the music and films people were following, the headlines shaping public life, and the everyday prices families encountered.

Culture in 1977

  • #1 song"You Light Up My Life" – Debby Boone
  • Top movieStar Wars
  • Top TV showHappy Days
  • Best-selling bookThe Silmarillion – J.R.R. Tolkien

Headlines and milestones

  • Major sports momentPelé retires after final match with the New York Cosmos
  • Top headlineStar Wars premieres and changes cinema forever
  • Technology milestoneApple II computer released
  • Defining fadStar Wars mania
  • Notable inventionAtari 2600 video game console
  • World population4.23 billion

United States snapshot

  • U.S. leaderJimmy Carter
  • Sports championNew York Yankees (World Series)
  • Also wonPortland Trail Blazers (NBA)
  • U.S. population220.2M

1977 versus 2026

These figures put everyday life in Shane Williams's birth year beside the site's latest United States snapshot.

Measure19772026
Gas$0.62$3.45/gal
Average home$49,300$435,000
Average income$16,009$67,500
Minimum wage$2.30$7.25/hr (federal)
Movie ticket$2.23$11.95
Postage stamp$0.13$0.73
Population220.2M341 million

Sources and editorial standards

This profile combines a biographical source with structured birthday and historical context. Sources recorded for this profile: Wikipedia, It's Rugby, Rugby Database. See our editorial policy for sourcing, corrections, and review standards.

Read the source biography on Wikipedia. Wikipedia text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.