{"id":12239,"date":"2012-07-09T12:24:49","date_gmt":"2012-07-09T10:24:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/07\/rugby-williams-halts-all-blacks-career-heading-back-to-league\/"},"modified":"2012-07-09T12:24:49","modified_gmt":"2012-07-09T10:24:49","slug":"rugby-williams-halts-all-blacks-career-heading-back-to-league","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/rugby-williams-halts-all-blacks-career-heading-back-to-league\/","title":{"rendered":"Rugby-Williams halts All Blacks career, heading back to league"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

July 9<\/span> (Reuters) – Barnstorming centre Sonny Bill Williams
\nhas brought a halt to his All Blacks career by confirming he has
\nsigned a short-term contract with Panasonic Wild Knights in
\nJapan’s Top League and will then return to Australia’s National
\nRugby League for 2013.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

The 26-year-old will leave New Zealand at the conclusion of
\nthe Super Rugby competition, ruling himself out of the inaugural
\nexpanded southern hemisphere championship involving test matches
\nagainst South Africa, Australia and Argentina.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Williams would not say which NRL club he would join, though
\nmedia in Australia and New Zealand have repeatedly said he had
\nreached an agreement with the Sydney Roosters.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Williams, who infamously walked out on a five-year contract
\nwith the NRL’s Canterbury Bulldogs in 2008 to switch codes and
\njoin French club Toulon, said he felt comfortable with the
\nWaikato Chiefs but had “a handshake agreement” in place with an
\nNRL club and wanted to honour that understanding.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

“This is due to a handshake agreement made a few years ago
\nbefore I even came back to New Zealand with an NRL club,”
\nWilliams told a media conference in Hamilton.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

“I haven’t signed anything yet and I’m not in a position to
\nelaborate on that (which NRL club he had agreed to join).<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

“I didn’t think I would have loved it as much as I have back
\nhere. To be honest I kind of felt like I’d found my place at the
\nChiefs … but it just goes back to (the fact) I’ve given
\nsomeone my word and I’ve had to go on with it even though it was
\ntough.”<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

The New Zealand Rugby Union (NZRU) coaxed Williams home from
\nEurope in 2010 and he made the All Blacks after a superb
\ndomestic championship with Canterbury.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

He played one season with the Canterbury-based Crusaders in
\nthe southern hemisphere Super Rugby competition last year before
\ncrossing to the Waikato Chiefs this season.
\n\u00a0 Continued…<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[830,2370,183],"class_list":{"0":"post-12239","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-news","8":"tag-reuters","9":"tag-south-africa-2","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12239","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12239"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12239\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}