For the second instalment of our new Tap and Go series, we caught up with Wales’ flame-haired flanker Martyn Williams to have a chinwag on such topics as retiring, returning and rugby windups.

Hello Martyn, how’s things?
I’m good thanks mate.

Glad to hear it. Now, things could have been a lot worse for you had you decided to stay in retirement rather than come back and be part of the Welsh revival - right decision?
Yeah. I suppose there was always a risk of coming back and things not going to well but so far so good! But over the next two games in the Six Nations we’ll find out where we are I think.

How hard was it for you to decide to ditch the international pipe and slippers and get back into a red shirt?
It was difficult on one hand but on the other hand as soon as Warren Gatland asked me, my heart was saying yes. I still had the desire but my head was saying: ‘you’re going to look a bit of a fool, you’ve only retired for one game’. But when I sat down and weighed everything up I thought that was probably the only down side to coming back. When someone of that calibre says they think you’ve still got something left, it makes you sit up and take notice.

And he’s got Shaun Edwards alongside him. Is he as intense as everyone seems to think?
He is very honest, that’s the best word to describe him, he won’t butter you up, he doesn’t say things you just want to hear, he says what he thinks and I think that’s what you want as a player. Everyone thinks he runs round 24/7 shouting and balling for the sake of it. He’s got a brilliant rugby brain on him and that’s the biggest thing – how knowledgeable he is about the game. He is very forceful sometimes and if you make a mistake he’ll let you know about it but there are no grudges bared, you move on and that’s what a coach is there for. I would say Shaun is totally different to anything we’ve had before but it’s working out well so far.

If you’re really honest with yourself, would you have stayed retired if Wales had had a good World Cup?
[Blows out his cheeks] That’s a good question! I decided to retire after the last Six Nations, I looked at the World cup and thought ‘that’s me done’, So I don’t know, maybe, maybe not. If we’d had success it might have made me hungry to stay on because the side is young and although a lot of the boys have a lot of caps they still have a good few years left. That’s what made me regret [the decision] as well, I could see the potential and could be something special round the corner. It would have been hugely frustrating not to have bee a part of that, so to have been given a second chance, I’m just over the moon.

Can we take it from that you won’t be announcing your retirement from international rugby again?
I’ve made that mistake of quitting. You always want to finish when you feel is right but I’ve no date in mind at all now. I’m enjoying every moment and I’ll just keep going until Warren says ‘we don’t need you anymore’. I won’t retire again.

It could be a pretty big few weeks with you, Wales going strong and Cardiff in the last eight of the Heineken Cup. Looking forward to that trip to Toulouse?
To be honest we couldn’t have asked for a worse draw could we! I think they’re 15 points clear in France. Look at the backs they’ve got, there are no weaknesses in that side. It’s a massive challenge but we’ve got nothing to lose. No one will expect us to win out there. It would have been nice to get a home tie but we pushed Stade Francais all the way in Paris and we’ll take confidence from that. These are the games you want to play with your club because you work hard day in day out with each other. To be honest, after the Six Nations that’s been it for the season in recent years, so it’s nice to have such a big occasion to look forward to.

And if it all goes your way, you’ll have to write a new chapter for that book of yours won’t you?
I hope so! If all things go well, I’d love to be able to write one about the next couple of seasons. We feel at Cardiff we’re really going places with the players we’ve signed, and with Wales as well. Its that stage of the season now where one game can either make it a great season or a pretty average one.

Right, at Tap and Go we like to hear tales of dressing room pranks played among the players, anything that comes to mind?
Pranks?

Yeah, any wind-ups you can think of?
Ahm, you’ve caught me off guard, I’ve got to think of ones you can print.

Never mind we’ll come back to it. What music are you listening to at the moment?
At the moment it’s the Twang, The Enemy and a bit of old school, Jonny Cash

What was the last book you read?
Wolf of the Plains, it’s about Genghis Khan. It’s the first in a series of books by the same guy who did the Emperor series, about Caesar growing up. They’re like fact based fiction books.

Heavy stuff. What’s your nickname?
Nugget. Nobody ever calls me Martyn, it’s been Nugget since I was 10 or 11 years old.

Who’s your favourite rugby player?
Matt Giteau. I played with him once, enjoyed watching him and played against him. He’s a fantastic rugby player, one of those guys who is such a natural, so instinctive, with brilliant skills. Him and Felipe Contepomi. You never know what they’re going to do next. Players like those two are why you watch the game. Brilliant.

And if Tap and Go was propping up the bar at the end of a game, what are you drinking?
[Pause]…Hmmmm… Pint of Stella, please.

And if you could invite any three people to dinner?
Ah, I had to answer this one about two weeks ago, who did I put down……Mick Jagger, Tiger Woods and Demi Moore. Showing my age there.

Have you thought of a prank yet?
Tom Shanklin stitched Xavier Rush up once. When Xavier first came over here he was living with Shanks and Shanks got one of his mates to text Xavier pretending to be this bird, saying he’d like to meet him at some bar in Cardiff. So shanks filmed Rushie getting ready, shaving and giving it all this [Tap and Go isn’t quite sure what ‘this’ is, but Nugget is in the flow, so we’ll let it go], talking into the camera about how excited he was.
Shanks then filmed him sitting there for about two hours waiting for this bird to turn up. She obviously never turned up. The next week we were doing video analysis. We were all sitting down expecting a preview of Leinster and Shanks put this tape on showing Xavier getting ready! It’s the kind of thing Shanks does. This was before Xavier had a missus mind!

Finally, can you tell us a joke?
Oh, God. I get told a million jokes and when I get asked to tell one I can never remember any. Sorry, wouldn’t have a clue, can’t think of one, not one that would be any good anyway.

No problem. Thanks Martyn, good luck at the weekend.
Cheers mate, thanks a lot.

Martyn Williams: the magificent seven, published by John Blake, costs £17.99 and is out now