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Sonny Bill Williams linked with shock North American code switch - reports

Sonny Bill Williams. (Photo by Laurence Griffiths/Getty Images)

Whilst speculation is normally rife about which rugby league players are next set to jump from the 13-man code to rugby union, there has been a twist this week, with one big-name player linked with a move in the opposite direction.

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League Weekly, a weekly rugby league newspaper in the UK, has reported that Toronto Wolfpack, who play in the second tier of the English league structure, are set to sign one of the biggest names in union.

David Argyle, who owns the Canadian club, stated that “before the Rugby Union World Cup in Japan later this year, we will have one of the top five rugby players in the world [coming here].”

That has understandably stoked speculation, with many suggesting that it could be Blues and New Zealand centre Sonny Bill Williams heading to the Ontario-based club. Given Argyle’s comments, there are few other options.

Israel Folau has experience in both codes but has recently signed a new long-term contract at the Waratahs, whilst the grandiose statement of the signing being a “top five” rugby player rules out a number of other players who have played both codes. With Williams in a contract year and already the subject of plenty of speculation that this would be his last season in union, he seems to fit the bill well.

A billionaire who has made his money in the mining industry, Argyle has aggressively pursued the Super League, England’s top tier league competition, since the Wolfpack were founded in 2016. They have enjoyed plenty of success since they were introduced into the English divisions in 2017, winning League One at the first time of asking and then finishing top of the log in the Championship in 2018. They were only denied promotion to Super League this season due to defeat to London Broncos in the Million Pound Game last year.

Coached by former Leeds Rhinos supremo Brian McDermott, Toronto has already attracted St Helens legend Jon Wilkin across the Atlantic and if they were able to bring in Williams after the RWC, it would represent their biggest coup yet.

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They are not the only side attempting to lure players away from union, either, with Warrington Wolves having confirmed the signing of Luther Burrell from Northampton Saints this week, with the centre set to head north at the end of the 2018/19 Gallagher Premiership season.

Watch: Sonny Bill Williams at his creative best for the Blues

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Flankly 1 minute ago
'Absolute madness': Clive Woodward rips into Borthwick in wake of NZ loss

Borthwick is supposed to be the archetypical conservative coach, the guy that might not deliver a sparkling, high-risk attacking style, but whose teams execute the basics flawlessly. And that's OK, because it can be really hard to beat teams that are rock solid and consistent in the rugby equivalent of "blocking and tackling".


But this is why the performance against NZ is hard to defend. You can forgive a conservative, back-to-basics team for failing to score tons of tries, because teams like that make up for it with reliability in the simple things. They can defend well, apply territorial pressure, win the set piece battles, and take their scoring chances with metronomic goal kicking, maul tries and pick-and-go goal line attacks.


The reason why the English rugby administrators should be on high alert is not that the English team looked unable to score tries, but that they were repeatedly unable to close out a game by executing basic, coachable skills. Regardless of how they got to the point of being in control of their destiny, they did get to that point. All that was needed was to be world class at things that require more training than talent. But that training was apparently missing, and the finger has to point at the coach.


Borthwick has been in the job for nearly two years, a period that includes two 6N programs and an RWC campaign. So where are the solid foundations that he has been building?

4 Go to comments
N
Nickers 10 minutes ago
Scott Robertson responds to criticism over All Blacks' handling errors

Very poor understanding of what's going on and 0 ability to read. When I say playing behind the gain line you take this to mean all off-loads and site times we are playing in front of the gain line???


Every time we play a lot of rugby behind the gain line (for clarity, meaning trying to build an attack and use width without front foot ball 5m+ behind the most recent breakdown) we go backwards and turn the ball over in some way. Every time a player is tackled behind the most recent breakdown you need more and more people to clear out because your forwards have to go back around the corner, whereas opposition players can keep moving forward. Eventually you run out of either players to clear out or players to pass to and the result in a big net loss of territory and often a turnover. You may have witnessed that 20+ times in the game against England. This is a particularly dumb idea inside your own 40m which is where, for some reason, we are most likely to employ it.


The very best ABs teams never built an identity around attacking from poor positions. The DC era team was known for being the team that kicked the most. To engineer field position and apply pressure, and create broken play to counter attack. This current team is not differentiating between when a defence has lost it's structure and there are opportunities, and when they are completely set and there is nothing on. The reason they are going for 30 minute + periods in every game without scoring a single point, even against Japan and a poor Australian team, is because they are playing most of their rugby on the back foot in the wrong half.

43 Go to comments
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Nickers 39 minutes ago
Scott Robertson responds to criticism over All Blacks' handling errors

I thought we made a lot of progress against that type of defence by the WC last year. Lots of direct running and punching holes rather than using width. Against that type of defence I think you have to be looking to kick on first phase when you have front foot ball which we did relatively successfully. We are playing a lot of rugby behind the gain line at the moment. They are looking for those little interchanges for soft shoulders and fast ball or off loads but it regularly turns into them battering away with slow ball and going backwards, then putting in a very rushed kick under huge pressure.


JB brought that dimension when he first moved into 12 a couple of years ago but he's definitely not been at his best this year. I don't know if it is because he is being asked to play a narrow role, or carrying a niggle or two, but he does not look confident to me. He had that clean break on the weekend and stood there like he was a prop who found himself in open space and didn't know what to do with the ball. He is still a good first phase ball carrier though, they use him a lot off the line out to set up fast clean ball, but I don't think anyone is particularly clear on what they are supposed to do at that point. He was used really successfully as a second playmaker last year but I don't think he's been at that role once this year. He is a triple threat player but playing a very 1 dimensional role at the moment. He and Reiko have been absolutely rock solid on defence which is why I don't think there will be too much experimentation or changes there.

43 Go to comments
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