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Sonny Bill Williams to return to action through grassroots rugby
By Online Editors
By Liam Napier, New Zealand Herald
Sonny Bill Williams could almost start as many games of club rugby as he did for the Blues this season, with the All Blacks midfielder expected to turn out for Ponsonby over the next two weeks.
Williams endured another difficult, injury-disrupted season for the Blues which restricted him to three starts – his final appearance against the Hurricanes in Wellington on June 15 coming after a 10-week layoff following knee surgery.
Such a frustrating campaign left him lacking game-time and match fitness ahead of the Rugby Championship and World Cup in Japan.
The 33-year-old therefore appears keen to use the grassroots avenue to continue his comeback.
The Herald understands at the end of the Blues' Super Rugby season Williams reached out to former All Blacks, Crusaders and Chiefs halfback Kevin Senio and New Zealand sevens playmaker Rocky Khan, both of whom are involved at Ponsonby, about the chance to play for the proud club.
Williams is tied to the tiny Puni club, situated over the Pukekohe hill in the Counties Manukau catchment, and previously played one match for Bombay in his return from suspension after the British and Irish Lions series in 2017.
As a contracted Counties player, Williams needed clearance to play for Ponsonby.
Now that has been officially approved by Counties and Auckland - his registration with Ponsonby coming before the last round cut off on July 6th - Williams is available for the Ponies' next two matches.
Williams' presence will be a huge boost for Ponsonby, Gallaher Shield champions, but also Auckland club rugby on the whole.
No doubt there will be additional supporters lining the sidelines, clambering to see the 51-test second five-eighth in action this Saturday, provided he is selected, as Ponsonby takes on Grammar TEC at the Orakei Domain.
Next week could be even more significant, with Williams potentially running out at Western Springs as Ponsonby host Eden.
All Blacks great Sir Bryan Williams, a life-long servant of Ponsonby, will be among those smiling at the prospect. The club is also home to Rieko and Akira Ioane, and has produced the most All Blacks of any at the grassroots.
Playing for Ponsonby over the next two weeks should allow Williams to build conditioning, confidence and fitness as he works towards the All Blacks' first test of the year against the Pumas in Buenos Aires on July 21.
While many believe Williams faces an uphill battle to make the World Cup squad, given the faith the All Blacks retain in him the reality is he probably only needs to regain full fitness to make the plane.
This article was first published on nzherald.co.nz and was republished again with permission.
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Latest Comments
Turn it up. Give me your john A game would ya!
Go to commentsI didn't really get the should tone from it, but maybe because I was just reading it as my own thoughts.
What I read it as was examples of how they played well enough in every game to be able to win it.
Yeah I dunno if Ben wouldn't see it that way (someone else would for sure need to point it out to him though), I'm more in the Ben not appreciating that those close losses werent one off scenarios camp. Sure you can look at dubious decisions causing them to have to play with 14 or 13 men at the death as viable reasons but even in the games they won without such difficulties they made a real struggle of it (compared to how good some of their first half play was). This kind of article where you trying to point out the 3 losses really would most likely have been wins only really makes sense/works when your other performances make those 3 games (or endings) stand out.
There might have been a sentence here and there to ensure some good comment numbers but when he's signing off the article by saying things like ..
and..
I don't really see it. Always making sure people are upto date with the SH standing/perspective! NZ went through some tough times with so many different perspectives and reasons why, but then it was.. amusing how.. behind everyone was once they turned a corner. More of these 'unfortunate' results returned against SA and France at the start of the RWC which made it extra tasty to catch other teams out when they did bring it. So that created some 'conscious' perspective that I just kept going and sharing re thoughts on similar predicaments of other teams, I had been really confident that Wallabies displays vs NZ were real, that the Argentines can backup their thing against Aus and SA (and so obviously the rest), and current one is that England are actually consistent and improving with their attack (which everyone should get onboard with), and I'm expecting a more dominant display against Japan (even though they should have more of their experienced internationals for this one) that highlights further growth from July. 👍
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