Northern Edition

Select Edition

Northern Northern
Southern Southern
Global Global
New Zealand New Zealand
France France

The new Sonny Bill Williams club rumour that isn't as crazy as it sounds

Sonny Bill Williams

Just months after reports spread that a Canadian Rugby League team was going all out to sign Sonny Bill Williams, a new seemingly unlikely transfer rumour is doing the rounds.

ADVERTISEMENT

In February it was revealed that Williams has been reportedly offered a NZ$5m one year deal to return to rugby league with the Toronto Wolfpack.

The billionaire behind the team – David Argyle – told Fox Sports at the time that: “We are working towards making Sonny Bill Williams a Wolfpack player for 2020. We would love to have him join the Wolfpack family and we will pay whatever it takes to make that happen,” said Argyle.

However, there have been no new developments on that front, and a new rugby league team has entered the fray to sign the All Black superstar.

A source has told RugbyPass that Super League club the Catalan Dragons have put Williams at the top of their wishlist, and the move might not be as outrageous as it first sounds.

Continue reading below…

Video Spacer

Steve McNamara – the current head coach of Catalan Dragons – coached Williams when he was an assistant coach at NRL side the Sydney Roosters in 2014.

McNamara is also a huge fan of Williams, telling the Guardian in 2014 that: “We get on great. We had a Roosters golf day and I was fortunate to be Sonny Bill’s partner. We spent four hours on a buggy chatting to each other. He’s an outstanding athlete – and very humble as well.”

ADVERTISEMENT

More recently McNamara penned a column in The Times extolling the virtues of the code-hopper’s offloading game.

It may be irrelevant, but the South of France may hold a special resonance for Williams. The Dragons are based in Perpignan, not far from Toulon, where the impression left on Williams by a Tunisian family would ultimately lead the All Black to Islam.

The club is not without ambition either. Last month the Dragons showed their intent with the signature of 6’5, 20 stone NRL prop Sam Kasiano from the Melbourne Storm.

ADVERTISEMENT

However, Dragons will have to fight off global interest from both codes of rugby.

According to a report by Nine Wide World of Sports, the Bulldogs and Sonny Bill Williams have engaged in informal talks about a potential return to the club, albeit one he infamously walked out on in 2008.

The report states that Williams has kept ties with the club and was due to present the players with their jerseys in Auckland last weekend before the events of Friday took precedent. A return to the Bulldogs would bring Williams career back to where he started in 2004, debuting as a professional footballer at 19-year-old.

Toulon have also made no secret of their desire to resign Williams, although the fallout over the treatment of ex-All Black and SBW teammate Julian Savea at the club may have put pay to that.

Eitherway, the centre will be focused on retaining his place in the All Blacks set, as he bids to see off the Super Rugby form of Blues teammate Ma’a Nonu, who kept him on the bench during the 2015 Rugby World Cup.

ADVERTISEMENT

LIVE

{{item.title}}

Trending on RugbyPass

Comments

0 Comments
Be the first to comment...

Join free and tell us what you really think!

Sign up for free
ADVERTISEMENT

Latest Features

Comments on RugbyPass

F
Flankly 0 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 9 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
N
Nickers 38 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
LONG READ
LONG READ England need to face a few home truths if they are to relearn that winning habit England need to face a few home truths if they are to relearn that winning habit
Search