FIVE MINUTES ... and SBW was over the Rugby World Cup
A glass-half-full attitude has helped Sonny Bill Williams move on after the Rugby World Cup. By Rick Broadbent
IT took Sonny Bill Williams about five minutes to get over the All Blacks’ humbling defeat by England in the Rugby World Cup semi-final. Any remaining pain was further soothed by the balm of a £5.2 million two-year move to rugby league upstarts the Toronto Wolfpack. As he was unveiled by the Canadian team in a suite at Arsenal’s football stadium, he clarified this was ‘‘the last hurrah’’ but not ‘‘a holiday’’.
It is a move that Toronto believe will take the newly promoted Betfred Super League club and their sport to higher ground. Bob Hunter, the chief executive, and Brian McDermott, the head coach, called Williams, 34, ‘‘a brand’’. Hunter likened him to LeBron James and David Beckham. McDermott said rugby league needed to raise its salary cap. In light of what is happening on the other side of the rugby divide at Saracens, a sceptic may deem that a pre-emptive plea.
But let’s deal with the final days of Williams’s union career first. What did he think when England breached tradition with what some regarded a V-sign to the haka? ‘‘I thought it was pretty cool,’’ he said. ‘‘I wanted to go out there and go, ‘Come on!’ They are challenging us and we are challenging them so it brought a bit more oomph and excitement to the atmosphere. The end result wasn’t great, though, was it?’’
It depends where you are viewing it from, but Williams was a font of positivity, explaining how his conversion to Islam while playing for Toulon pacified his wilder streak. Hence, his appraisal of the World Cup seemed forged from glasses that were rose-tinted and half full.
He dismissed the suggestion that he must have been heartbroken when he first met McDermott in Japan. ‘‘I was fine,’’ he said. ‘‘I reckon about five or 10 minutes after the game I had talked myself [round]. I was like, ‘Yo, let’s start moving forward’.’’ He thanked his creator and found instant perspective. He said this came from growing up in a housing commission house.
Even so, losing to England can only hurt, even if by osmosis. ‘‘It was pretty tough being in the hotel – there were a lot of sad boys, tough boys. It’s four years that you put your heart and soul into and it doesn’t come to fruition.’’
England’s press and public should be delighted, he said. ‘‘We were probably slaughtered too, but with my glass-half-full mentality I try not to read it [the negative press]. I guess some people think, ‘Look at this dickhead, he doesn’t care,’ but in my journey in life I have been through a lot tougher situations.
‘‘It would have been amazing to win three World Cups but what I hang my hat on is being a man of faith. Why stress? There are times when I get down and I get anxiety, but then I can go to my happy place. Seeing that picture of my good friend Siya Kolisi holding that cup – how awesome was that picture?’’
With 58 All Blacks caps, he conceded that England won the physical battle in the semi-final, used their strengths and plugged the corners.
Lauding Eddie Jones’s tactics, he warned against knee-jerk reactions. ‘‘South Africa then did to them what England did to us – beat them up. In my simplistic view we over-analyse. The South
Africans were ruthless.’’
The press conference at Arsenal, a venue for the 2021 Rugby League World Cup, did not undersell Williams’ potential impact. At various times, with no disrespect you understand, Salford Red Devils and Featherstone Rovers were mentioned as teams that do not capture the global imagination. McDermott spoke of a billion eyeballs watching England lose to the Springboks. Wolfpack chiefs were at pains to stress that this is, in every way, a very big deal, albeit the New Zealand Stuff website pointed out the signing had not roused the interest of the
Toronto Star or the Globe and Mail.
Williams said that his manager had told him about the greater interest of Toronto the day after the England game. He had not wanted any distractions. He then told Steve Hansen, the All Blacks coach, before the thirdplace play-off against Wales. So after one heavyweight boxing title, two rugby league gongs in the NRL in Australia, and spells at Toulon, Canterbury, Crusaders, Chiefs and Blues, this is the final chapter.
Due to become a father of four in February, Williams clearly knows his worth, but was he comfortable with Hunter likening him to other sporting icons?
‘‘No because I just see myself as myself. For me to say I don’t like being compared to David Beckham and LeBron James doesn’t mean I’m trying to shy away from pressure. It just means I don’t see myself as some massive star. That’s a good thing.’’ Toronto may beg to differ. He needs to be supra-massive. The good news is that he says he has always been a league man, never playing union as a child other than one game at 14 to skip school. He has been in touch with the Samoa and Kiwi camps with a view to a new international career but said he needed to get fit at a retreat in Australia before ‘‘we talk that talk’’. And so, after a snakes-and-ladder career, he enters the last hurrah, no doubt feeling brand new.
‘‘It was pretty tough being in the hotel – there were a lot of sad boys, tough boys. It’s four years that you put your heart and soul into and it doesn’t come to fruition.’’ Sonny Bill Williams