Joining the fray for ABs contention
All you need to know about the Canadian club Sonny Bill Williams is set to join.
Sonny Bill Williams will become the highest paid player in either rugby code when joining the Canadian league outfit Toronto Wolfpack on a two-year deal worth a reported NZ$10 million.
The ambitious Toronto club is bankrolled by David Argyle, an Australian mining entrepreneur, and will next year play in the English Super League for the first time after two promotions in three seasons, since its first professional campaign in 2017.
Williams, who played his final All Blacks test in the Rugby World Cup’s bronze final last Friday, could make his first appearance for the Wolfpack in their Super League debut against Castleford Tigers in Leeds on February 2.
Castleford would count as one three of Toronto’s ‘‘home’’ fixtures played in England because of the unavailability of their home ground, Lamport Stadium, until the harsh Canadian winter ends in April.
That quirk is one of several challenges the Wolfpack face as a Canadian side playing in a 12-team competition.
For Williams, 34, it could be the final chapter of his illustrious sporting career, which started in league with the Canterbury Bulldogs, included a stint as a professional heavyweight boxer, Rugby World Cup wins with the All Blacks in 2011 and 2015, as well as NRL titles with the Bulldogs and Sydney Roosters in 2004 and 2013 respectively.
He signed off with a 40-17 win over Wales in his 58th and final test that was also potentially his last game of rugby ahead of an anticipated return to league, five years after last appearing for the Roosters.
The Super League has a salary cap but only £150,000 (NZ$302,750) of Williams’ annual earnings would count because of the competition’s marquee ruling, introduced in 2015 so more clubs could attract and retain the game’s stars who might be sought by Australian league teams, as well as rugby union, which has far greater finances than its rival code in the UK.
In 2016, the Rugby Football League (RFL) announced a Canadian franchise would begin playing professionally in the UK in 2017, starting in League One, the third tier.
On the field, the Wolfpack have been tremendously successful and they won League One at a canter to earn promotion to the Championship for 2018.
Their first season in the second tier was expected to be a far greater challenge but the Wolfpack were 80 minutes away from promotion to the Super League, losing 4-2 in the playoff match known as the ‘‘Million Pound Game’’ against London Broncos.
The defeat was a costly financial blow but the club bounced back to win the same game 12 months later, beating
Featherstone Rovers 24-6 to reach the Super League and become the first team outside of Europe to earn a place in the top flight.
Their 2019 squad was coached by Brian McDermott, a Super League winner with the Leeds Rhinos, and former Great Britain coach Brian Noble was director of rugby.
There were two New Zealandborn players – former NRL stars Chase Stanley and Bodene Thompson – in a team mostly made up of Brits. There are no Canadian players.
McDermott has said Toronto wanted to bring in a David Beckham-type player to do for the Wolfpack what the former football star did when joining LA Galaxy in the United States and that Williams fitted the bill.
Toronto is home to teams in sports hugely popular in Canada like the NHL (the Maple Leafs, ice hockey), MLB (the Blue Jays, baseball), NBA (the Raptors, basketball) and MLS (the Rapids, football).
The move for Williams seems like one of the first of many ambitious steps the Wolfpack are willing to make with him poised for another crack at league.
It’s where his career began in 2004 when he made his international debut with the Kiwis the same year.