The last time we all saw Sonny Bill Williams playing rugby union was back in 2012. A daunting figure standing 6 ft 4 and tipping the scales at roughly 110kg, he was a player who could bring down three or four opposition players while still getting the ball away in a pass you couldn’t quite believe was even possible.
Come 2015, SBW will be back in rugby union and back in black. Williams has signed a two year deal with both the Chiefs and the All Blacks, hoping to represent the All Blacks in the 2015 World Cup and the Sevens team in the 2016 Summer Olympics. Williams also finds himself exempted from having to play the compulsory term in the domestic ITM Cup competition that all players hoping to play international rugby need to fulfil prior to selection, meaning he will be able to slip straight into training once he reaches New Zealand’s shores.
Coach Steve Hansen has said he is been given this special treatment as there aren’t enough test matches happening between his arrival and the World Cup next year. What Hansen is refusing to comment on is the fact that Williams is expecting his first child in November, the same time the All Blacks will be on tour in both the UK and US, but it seems this golden child really can get away with anything.
Saying all of this, I would be lying if I said I was pleased to see him back. When SBW first represented NZ, he was a figure I was pleased to see run onto the field. He worked well with Carter (at the time) and with his immense strength was able to draw in and hold players while getting passes away, creating gaps for his fellow attacking team-mates. When he returns, he will be replacing the injured Ma’a Nonu and will most likely be working in tandem with fellow Chiefs player Aaron Cruden, a combination many are calling the ‘dream team’.
However, SBW is lacking one quality that he can’t prove on a rugby field – loyalty. It seems that he jumps teams according to where the biggest cheque will land him, expecting to be able to waltz back into any team when the desire comes to him. There is no way he will be able to achieve the same success playing for the Roosters in NRL compared to playing for the All Blacks in the World Cup and he knows this, considering he himself has claimed he is looking for a return to NRL once his contract comes to an end, hopefully returning with a World Cup win and an Olympic gold.
But it isn’t just his lack of loyalty or concern for each team he drops, to move up in his own career, that shines a bright and negative light on him. I simply don’t believe he is good enough to be in the number one ranked team in the world anymore. SBW, like Israel Folau, is a player that is very big and very strong. Both posses a strong running game and can remain on their feet with two or three players hanging on. But their skill level is not on the same level as genuine and pure rugby union players and since leaving the union one can only believe it has further deteriorated.
Players like Ryan Crotty and Malakai Fekitoa can out-play Williams on their off days and it’s both disappointing and frustrating as a fan (so I can’t imagine how they themselves must feel) to see them both put in the hard work week in and week out to find a place in the team, just to see someone who bailed two years ago with no concern for what he was leaving behind, come back and walk straight into the squad like he never left.
Compare him to his opposite number and biggest competitor, Jean de Villiers; it would be like watching a schoolboy play his sports hero and expecting to come out on top. To simply put it, it would be laughable. I am not looking to be completely negative about Williams and rip him apart but I have since lost respect for a player I expected to go very far in his rugby union career.
He was given the best opportunity he could have hoped to receive when he was called up for international duty and he did make the most of it, despite many critics calling him out on his clear lack of skill and inability to properly read the game. You could see him only getting better with each week he stuck with it, playing domestic rugby every opportunity he got, developing his game. However, it now just seems he plays where the money is, losing the passion for a game that so many revolve their lives around. It’s a slap in the face to All Blacks players and supporters alike.
Adding to my point about his passion for the game dwindling rather than growing is this on-going concern with his boxing career. SBW himself has said that boxing could become his main concern once his rugby career finally comes to an end, either because of his age or simply because he no longer feels the need or desire to play. There is a very simple reason why you can count the amount of athletes that pursue international careers in more than one sport on one hand. If you truly wanted to be the best at the sport you choose, you dedicate your life to it.
You don’t sacrifice valuable time and effort or put yourself at risk of injury in a sport that is easily shoved to the back when it comes to your more promising venture. Boxing gives SBW an extra income and an extra stage to shine, two things he certainly would not be lacking in if he was to focus on rugby and rugby alone. But he simply cannot help himself can he?
In all honestly, I am going to find it difficult to back a coach and a team that shows players who work their hardest to get a place on a bench, let alone a starting position, that if you have a reputation for being half decent, you don’t need to prove yourself, you simply need to pitch up and act interested to get straight back onto that team.
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