All Black centre Sonny Bill Williams has extended his stay in New Zealand, signing a one-year extension to his All Black contract. He has also confirmed that he will be available for the Chiefs in Super Rugby for 2012.
Williams has become something of an iconic figure in the rugby world of late – a reasonably interesting phenomenon given the bit-part he ended up playing in New Zealand’s 2011 Rugby World Cup triumph. His partnership with Robbie Freuan in midfield was one of the highlights of a great campaign for the Crusaders in Super Rugby this year, but in Richard Kahui he will no doubt find an equally adept foil in Chiefs colours.
Williams will apparently also continue his professional boxing career.
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Damn. Now we have to deal with him again… 🙄 We miss the Crusaders in the draw, but play the Chiefs. (I think?)
Chiefs! Wow :shoked:
dammm
The Chiefs need a flyhalf still! The Blues are building a serious side and should be close to favourites on paper.
@SheldonK (Comment 4) :
Blues looking pretty good yeah!
I’m no fan of playing Weepu at 10 though. Think they’ll make a mistake doing that… but easily rectified by giving the job to Anscombe.
Halfbacks score poorly in FantasyRugby, so I’ll pick Weepu as my 9 😆
I think something might be missing here. He is iconic, but the Crusaders let him go. HH, what’s the reasoning behind this?
And secondly, he didn’t feature in the RWC as much as anticipated. Is he to big for his shoes? Just wondering.
@SheldonK (Comment 4) :
They have Aaron Cruden ….. their backline will be handy, SBW will not weaken it ….. nice to see the talent spread about a bit!
Will there be enough to keep SBW occupied in Hick town Hamilton? 😉
@JustPlainSHARK (Comment 6) :
I do not think it was a case of the crusaders letting him go …. for all the bad press SBW gets he is fairly straight forward to deal with by all accounts. He wanted to leave, his mother lives in Auckland and wanted to be closer to his roots in Auckland.
I for one am pleased he has not been lost to another code or competition.
I think he can push most of the All Black backs pretty hard for a starting spot next year.
SBW couldn’t handle the whole Earthquake thing… The backline of Cruden, Sonny Jill and Kahui is quite a potent thing to contemplate. The chiefs always have good outside backs but have historically been a bit light in depth in the midfield…
@KSA Shark © (Comment 8) :
No
@The Quirk (Comment 10) :
Agreed I think the Chiefs will be ok next year ….. I think all the NZ Super Squads are named tomorrow.
@Hertford Highlander (Comment 7) : I didnt realise that Cruden went to the Chiefs! Eish thats a pretty solid midfield they have then. It will be a question of whether the Chiefs forwards can give that backline decent ball. Hows the Highlanders looking?
@SheldonK (Comment 13) :
Well believe it or not I think we will be ok
our forwards are usually alright traditionally
and our backline could be something like:
Cowan, Slade, Tamati Ellison (back from Japan), Piatau, Hosea Gear, Ben Smith and someone else…… so we should be ok
Hosea Gear is the big signing ….. i’m a big fan ! 😎
@Hertford Highlander (Comment 14) : Yeh Gear and Slade if they fit will make a difference. Your forwards seem to do well in patches and then go walkabout in other games. I would write the Ozzies off next year but with the conference system they will be in with a shout.
@JustPlainSHARK (Comment 6) : The Crusaders were desperate to keep him, however he left as the quakes got to him. Evidently his flat was/is in the Red Zone where only the demolishers have access. Living here in Christchurch isn’t easy if (like me) your house and land is badly damaged. Unfortunately some of us are stuck due to our jobs, investments (House) so we will just Vas Byte. I still think that his boxing causes a distraction to the other players in the squad. However I would still have loved to have seen this guy in a Sharks jersey ahead of our current crop of centres