How Sonny Bill ended up in Toronto
As the final whistle blew on the All Blacks’ shock World Cup semifinal loss in Japan, a door opened on the other side of the world.
Twenty-four hours after that defeat to England, Sonny Bill Williams was in a Tokyo restaurant, having a dinner conversation that would seal his sporting future.
Knowing Williams would be hanging up his black jersey at the end of the tournament, the Toronto Wolfpack dispatched head coach Brian McDermott to Tokyo to get face time with the player.
McDermott was in the stands as the All Blacks lost 19-7 to England on October 26. The post-mortem had barely begun when he sat down with Williams the following night.
‘‘It wasn’t just a polite dinner. It was a very thorough examination of both parties,’’ McDermott told Stuff on the phone from England, where the Wolfpack are training for their first Super League season in 2020.
As they ate, Williams grilled McDermott for 90 minutes about the team’s strategy and ethos, on and off the field.
‘‘He asked me all sorts of questions about how we play, what our philosophies are in the attack, how we defend, how we train, the resource behind the club, the physio department, the strength and conditioning department,’’ McDermott says.
The coach had questions of his own: did Williams want to play league? Or would he be coming to Toronto for the headlines and the payday?
‘‘As much as I personally, and the club, would like the name of Sonny Bill Williams on our playing roster, we want the player first and foremost,’’ McDermott says.
‘‘The whole trip out there [to Japan] boiled down to that hour and a half where we asked each other some very pressing questions.’’
That cross-examination was, McDermott says, ‘‘the last piece of the jigsaw’’ – capping off a year of the Wolfpack publicly expressing interest in signing Williams, and months of quiet negotiations with his manager, Australia-based Khoder Nasser.
Less than two weeks after their dinner, Williams sat with McDermott again – this time, in London, at his first press conference with the Wolfpack.
Williams described their initial meeting as ‘‘awesome’’, adding: ‘‘I really believe in Brian’s philosophy and how he wants to play the game.’’
McDermott – a former British Royal Marine, league international and Super League coach – puts his philosophy down to one word: discipline.
The team didn’t have a lot of it when he came on board earlier this year. Their reputation around the game was a good team, but a team with too much b...hit attached to them.’’
Williams himself has faced similar criticism, with detractors describing him as more style than substance, someone only picked for the All Blacks ‘‘because he’s Sonny’’.
McDermott, on the other hand, characterises Williams as ‘‘very, very polite, very gracious’’, a player who ‘‘clearly did his homework’’ on the Wolfpack. He hopes Williams will play a role in shaping the young team’s culture.
After their face-to-face meeting, there was still one more conversation Williams needed to have.
He phoned Wolfpack majority owner David Argyle, a Torontobased Australian mining magnate whose deep pockets have rocketed the start-up team to league’s top tier in three years.
Williams told media he got ‘‘awesome vibes’’ from that call.
What did the owner tell the player to convince him it was fate?
The answer, Argyle says, with a laugh, is ‘‘really boring’’.
‘‘We just chatted about what we stand for, which is rugby [league] balls in kids’ hands, a little bit about family, and [how] Toronto is a great city.
‘‘Rugby [league] doesn’t care where you’re from or what you look like, or your background. He concurred. It’s about growing the game, it’s a great opportunity.’’