 Following his return from injury, Williams was an automatic selection for the 2007 Rugby World Cup, especially as two other locks, James Ryan and Jason Eaton were unavailable owing to long-term injuries and Keith Robinson had suffered a calf strain during the Tri Nations and was a doubtful starter, at least for the first pool game.Robinson suffered a recurrence of his calf strain during pre-tournament training, which left Williams and Chris Jack to share the locking duties during the early games.Williams started in New Zealand's first three games, against , and Scotland.