July 9 (Reuters) – Barnstorming centre Sonny Bill Williams
has brought a halt to his All Blacks career by confirming he has
signed a short-term contract with Panasonic Wild Knights in
Japan’s Top League and will then return to Australia’s National
Rugby League for 2013.
The 26-year-old will leave New Zealand at the conclusion of
the Super Rugby competition, ruling himself out of the inaugural
expanded southern hemisphere championship involving test matches
against South Africa, Australia and Argentina.
Williams would not say which NRL club he would join, though
media in Australia and New Zealand have repeatedly said he had
reached an agreement with the Sydney Roosters.
Williams, who infamously walked out on a five-year contract
with the NRL’s Canterbury Bulldogs in 2008 to switch codes and
join French club Toulon, said he felt comfortable with the
Waikato Chiefs but had “a handshake agreement” in place with an
NRL club and wanted to honour that understanding.
“This is due to a handshake agreement made a few years ago
before I even came back to New Zealand with an NRL club,”
Williams told a media conference in Hamilton.
“I haven’t signed anything yet and I’m not in a position to
elaborate on that (which NRL club he had agreed to join).
“I didn’t think I would have loved it as much as I have back
here. To be honest I kind of felt like I’d found my place at the
Chiefs … but it just goes back to (the fact) I’ve given
someone my word and I’ve had to go on with it even though it was
tough.”
The New Zealand Rugby Union (NZRU) coaxed Williams home from
Europe in 2010 and he made the All Blacks after a superb
domestic championship with Canterbury.
He played one season with the Canterbury-based Crusaders in
the southern hemisphere Super Rugby competition last year before
crossing to the Waikato Chiefs this season.
Continued…
