Family, friends, former team-mates – and the rugby world in general – are all still trying to come to terms with Friday’s sudden death of Chester Williams.

The former Springbok player and Rugby World Cup winner succumbed to a fatal heart attack at the age of just 49.

Williams played 27 games for South Africa and scored 14 tries. The winger was a member of the 1995 winning World Cup team and was named the SA Rugby Player of the Year in 1994.

After his playing career ended, Williams coached the University of the Western Cape (UWC) team, after being appointed by Mandla Gagayi, the director of sports administration at UWC. Williams had taken his team into the Varsity Cup competition for the first time this year.

And Gagayi has spoken in fond terms of Williams, saying: “I think for me, he has always been one of the people that when things go bad you, can look back and say that if Chester Williams from Paarl, that neighbourhood, could survive all the way to becoming the legend that he is today then what is stopping me?”