Sonny Bill Williams 'a cut above' the average Mitre 10 player
When the All Blacks released Sonny Bill Williams to play for Counties Manukau this week he had two big boxes to tick; get some minutes under his belt and prove his body can handle those minutes.
He did both in Katikati on Saturday, playing 80 minutes of rugby in a preseason outing for Counties – one half against Wellington and another against Bay of Plenty in a ‘Game of Three Halves’ preseason hit-out.
It was crucial game time for the midfielder, who has played just 38 games of XVs rugby since the 2015 World Cup final, with the All Blacks’ first World Cup match less than 50 days away.
While neither encounter allowed him sufficient space to really set the world alight, he did everything he needed to. The first was a scrappy 5-all draw with Wellington while the second, played into a strong breeze, resulted in a 31-0 pummelling at the hands of Bay of Plenty.
Williams’ class and match awareness were obvious throughout. He embraced contact, threw a few trademark offloads and the odd brave individual who chose to run at him certainly felt the full impact of those big shoulders.
The environment was in stark contrast to the last game he played – the All Blacks 16-all draw with South Africa in their Investec Rugby Championship Test in Wellington. He said he had enjoyed his time in Katikati and playing for Counties.
Alhamdulillah we get to live in New Zealand. Such a beautiful country. Love & blessings fam ???? pic.twitter.com/X07a1NydeJ
— Sonny Bill Williams (@SonnyBWilliams) August 2, 2019
“[The goal was] just to get through 80 minutes, have a bit of fun and enjoy it. The body’s feeling good, it was good to get through 80,” Williams said afterward.
When asked if he felt he was in good stead to play in the Rugby World Cup, Williams said: “I hope so, we’ll see.”
Counties Manukau head coach Darryl Suasua said Williams was an influential leader in the side without putting himself on a pedestal.
“He (Sonny Bill Williams) listens and he’ll add his bit but he’s still learning the stuff we’ve been working on, he’s only been here a week. He just puts himself down on the same level as everyone else, he’s not someone who wants everybody to look up to him.
“He’s awesome, he’s a great guy. He’s come in and he works hard with the boys. There’s a real bit of class, you could see in the first half there when the boys were fresh and Wellington’s second team came out there he created a lot of space for us, it’s great to have him out there.
“One of the things we could see when he first came in and trained with us is the difference between him and the boys who have come out of Mitre 10 or Super Rugby – he’s certainly a cut above.”
It was also Williams’ 34th birthday, something two young locals made note of when they hijacked the loudspeaker to sing him happy birthday as he ran onto the field. It took Williams half an hour to leave the field at the end of the game as he was mobbed by enthusiastic fans.
Williams will play for Counties again next week in their regular season opener against Taranaki in Pukekohe.
“From that it’s obviously a week by week thing around what the All Blacks want,” Suasua told Radio Sport. “The instructions for us were to see if we could get him as much game time as possible. We love having him on board.”
Game of Three Halves Results
Wellington 24 Bay of Plenty 15
Wellington 5 Counties Manukau 5
Counties Manukau 0 Bay of Plenty 31
Comments on RugbyPass
NZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
22 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
22 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
22 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
22 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
9 Go to commentsYes Sir! Surprising, just like Fraser would also have escaped sanction if he was a few inches lower, even if it was by accident that he missed! Has there really been talk about those sanctions or is this just sensational journalism? I stopped reading, so might have missed any notations.
9 Go to commentsAI is only as good as the information put in, the nuances of the sport, what you see out the corner of the eye, how you sum up in a split second the situation, yes the AI is a tool but will not help win games, more likely contribute to a loss, Rugby Players are not robots, all AI can do if offer a solution not the solution. AI will effect many sports, help train better golfers etc.
45 Go to commentsIt couldn’t have been Ryan Crotty. He wasn’t selected in either World Cup side - they chose Money Bill instead. And Money Bill only cared about himself, and that manager he had, not the team.
28 Go to commentsYawn 🥱 nobody would give a hoot about this new trophy. End of the day we just have to beat Ireland and NZ this year then they can finally shut up 🤐
22 Go to commentsTalking bout Ryan Crotty? Heard Crotty say in a interview once that SBW doesen't care about the team . He went on to say that whenever they lost a big game, SBW would be happy as if nothing happened, according to him someone who cares would look down.. Personally I think Crotty is in the wrong, not for feeling gutted but for expecting others 2 be like him… I have been a bad loser forever as it matters so much to me but good on you SBW for being able to see the bigger picture….
28 Go to commentsThis sounds like a WWE idea so Americans can also get excited about rugby, RUGBY NEEDS A INTERNATIONAL CALENDER .. The rugby Championship and Six Nations can be held at same time, top 3 of six nations and top 3 of Rugby championship (6 nations should include Georgia AND another qualifying country while Fiji, Japan and Samoa/Tonga qualifier should make out 6 Southern teams).. Scrap June internationals and year end tours. Have a Elite top six Cup and the Bottom 6 in a secondary comp….
22 Go to commentsThe rugby championship would be even stronger with Fiji in it… I know it doesen’t fit the long term plans of NZ or Aus but you are robbing a whole nation of being able to see their best players play for Fiji…. Every second player in NZ and AUS teams has Fijian surnames… shame on you!!! World rugby won’t step in either as France and England has now also joined in…. I guess where money is involved it will always be the poor countries missing out….
90 Go to comments