Nanai-Williams ready for SBW

Having shut down the Blues before the season started, then on the field in round two, Tim NanaiWilliams is hoping to inflict more pain on the desperate franchise when his Chiefs side take to Eden Park on Friday night.

And this time round, there’s another looming figure who he’s looking to counter too - cousin SBW.

Sonny Bill was still recovering from the ruptured achilles suffered at the Olympics when the Chiefs demolished the Blues 41-26 in Hamilton on March 3, but this time it’s game on for the relatives.

Having linked at the Chiefs in 2012 and 2015, it will be a different feeling being on opposing sides. There was a Chiefs v Crusaders game in 2011 when Nanai-Williams was on the bench, while the only other time the pair have started against one another was two years back, on Nanai-Williams’ test debut for Samoa, against the All Blacks in Apia.

And going into Friday, the banter has already started. With a chat group also featuring Liam Messam and former Chiefs, now Blues, halfback Augustine Pulu, there should be no words spared ahead of game day.

‘‘There’s always banter every week, but I think there’ll be a bit more this week,’’ Nanai-Williams said.

The prospect of containing, and trying to elude, the much-vaunted Williams frame could well fall directly into Nanai-Williams’ brief too. After a couple of months out with a shoulder injury he returned on the right wing against the Crusaders in Fiji last Friday, but with the Chiefs having Charlie Ngatai, Sam McNicol and Stephen Donald unlikely because of concussion, he may well move in to the midfield.

‘‘It will be real funny, he’ll definitely be a handful, it will be a real hard job to keep that man down,’’ said Nanai-Williams, who gives away 12cm and 18kg to the older cousin.

‘‘We all know what he can do, especially if you run it at him. It’s going to be a good challenge this week, and I’ll be enjoying it, and I know he’ll be enjoying it too. I think he’s going to try and come get me and Liam especially.’’

Nanai-Williams was close to joining cousin Williams, and men- tor Tana Umaga, at the Blues on return from Japan, but, with his family happily settled in Hamilton, it was back to the franchise he had played six seasons for from 2010.

‘‘When you’re negotiating contracts and coming back you look at all options, and I was looking at the Blues,’’ Nanai-Williams said. ‘‘I am an Auckland boy, born and bred, and I didn’t leave Auckland till I came down here to the Chiefs after I left school.

‘‘At the end of the day my little family was quite happy and stable here in Hamilton, and they enjoy it here, so it was an easy decision at the end. And I’ve played for this club since I left school, so just giving back to the club too, and just knowing the coaching staff, how good they are, and the boys that are still here too, that just made everything easier to decide.’’

Though he was gone just one Super Rugby season, NanaiWilliams said he has noticed the players being younger, faster, stronger and bigger.

‘‘Certainly the level of rugby’s turned up a notch from when I left, and there’s just some freakish kids,’’ he said.

And, after coming from the bench in round one, starting on the right wing in round two, he then certainly felt the hurt lining up at centre in round three when he dislocated his right shoulder, and tore the labrum, against the Hurricanes in Hamilton.

‘‘It was painful when I did do it, I’ve never done a shoulder before, and it was painful for eight weeks, just to get all the rehab and get all the strength back into my shoulder. It’s been a long road,’’ Nanai-Williams said.

‘‘It was pretty boring, days are quite repetitive. It’s just the mental side of things, because you just know it’s going to be a long process. But you try and see the brighter side of things when you’re doing rehab, I got to spend a bit more time with my kids, and you kind of appreciate other things more than just rugby.’’