Jim Williams is a winner, his career a catalogue of success that incorporated World and Bledisloe triumphs with Australia and victory in the 2001 Super 12 competition in the ACT Brumbies jersey.

Today at Lansdowne Road he is hoping to pen another chapter when Munster take on Leinster in the Celtic League final. The 33-year-old from a small farming town called Young, 200 miles west of Canberra, is not sated by what he has achieved to date.

He didn't come to Ireland for a financially lucrative overseas jolly to sustain him through the twilight of his career. In conversation with Williams, one is struck by the practical, forthright manner in which he arrived at his decision to take up Munster coach Declan Kidney's offer of a contract.

Fellow Australian John Langford had made the initial overtures when he learned that Williams was pondering quitting Australia for Europe. "He (Langford) heard on the grapevine that I was starting to look overseas and gave me a call in March. He, basically, was the one that sold me on Munster."

Williams peppers the conversation about his search for a side that would be competitive, wanted to win trophies and played the kind of rugby that he enjoyed. Munster fulfilled the criteria. "The set-up here in Ireland is very good and the competitions are good, especially with Irish sides doing well.

"One of the reasons I came here to Munster was that they have been so consistent in the European Cup and in the interpros and everything. It's been fantastic from a personal point of view."

Williams' initial impression on arriving in Ireland was that things weren't hugely different to Super 12.

"It's probably small things that are just logistical, like the travelling from Cork to Limerick for training. They are not as many staff involved, like personal trainers and stuff like that, but on the whole there is not a great difference.

"In terms of the way the game is played, conditions do play a part in how the football game goes. Obviously, you don't get a chance to play French sides and Welsh teams back home and it is considerably different playing those types of sides. Playing against teams from New Zealand and South Africa the game is very quick and the physical side of things isn't as great but over here, it's very physical.

"It's a little more physical in the tight as well as out wide. It does make for a much tougher game sometimes."

Williams' success is all the more laudable considering that he did not start playing serious, top-class (Super 12) rugby until he was 29. The eighth child in the family, he left school at 16, joined the army - where he trained as a plumber - at 17 and then made a decision to switch from rugby league to union. He spent a season at West Hartlepool before returning home in 1996, joining the Warringah club in the suburbs of Sydney.

In those days, he played in the centre or on the wing and it was in the latter position that he endured a seminal moment in his career. Playing against Randwick in the Sydney Grand Final he opposed David Campese that day: it was a game that spawned nightmares.

"Campo made a fool of me and that finished me on the wing. Even walking off the field I decided that I'd had enough and I was going into the forwards the following season."

In 1998, Williams was awarded a contract with the ACT Brumbies under current Australian coach Eddie Jones.

In May of that year, Jones and Williams nearly came to blows following a Warringah club match. Jones laid into the player verbally, called him "f***ing fat" amongst others things and threatening to tear up his contract.

Williams kept his temper . . . just.

"It was embarrassing. The ego is a big thing for any sportsman and mine had been shattered. Nobody likes being told that they're useless."

It would be the last time that Williams would allow anyone the latitude to criticise him like that. In fairness to Jones, he would go on to become one of Williams' biggest advocates.

The player focused on his future, trained with a ferocious single-mindedness and this allowed him to break into the Australia team in 1999 when coming on as a replacement against Ireland in the first Test.

Bledisloe Cup and World Cup triumphs were enjoyed by year's end. The following season he was inspirational as the ACT Brumbies progressed to the Super 12 final, losing to Canterbury Crusaders.

Twelve months later, the pain of that final defeat would be erased in victory. His 14-cap career with the national side ended in acrimony: Williams was discarded on the back of a new youth policy, thus denying him the opportunity to face the Lions, something he craved.

Australia's loss has been Munster's gain and he has settled easily. "Munster have welcomed me with open arms. They guys have been very good and I get on really well with them.

"That was probably one of the other main reasons. Johnny Langford said to me that they were a great bunch of blokes: they love to play their football, but they know how to have a good time and when to be serious.

"That probably goes along the lines of the Brumbies back at home. They're very similar in the cultures when it comes to rugby on and off the field. It was definitely another big selling point."

Williams has become a fixture at blindside flanker on merit, his sustained excellence a central factor in Munster's run to the final. Against Leinster today he faces a few Australians with whom he is familiar.

"They've got (coach) Matty Williams and some great players. He instilled a great philosophy in the way they play and guys like Keith Gleeson and Nathan Spooner have complemented the side so well. They have great runners out wide and, in fact, are strong all over the paddock.

"They deserve to be in the position that they are, particularly as a reward for the style of football that they have been playing."

Williams, though, won't be doling out anything other than the verbal largesse. He may only have been here a short time, but in keeping with his team-mates, he shares that hard-edged desire of a winner.