Sonny Bill Williams

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Sonny Bill Williams

Personal information
Full name	Sonny Bill Williams
Date of birth	August 3, 1985 (1985-08-03) (age 22)
Place of birth	Auckland, New Zealand
Height	1.91 m (6 ft 3 in)
Weight	108 kg (17 st 0 lb)
Nickname(s)	Bill / SBW
Club information
Position(s)	Second-Row
Current club	Canterbury Bulldogs
Number	11
Youth clubs
Years	Club
	Marist Saints
Senior clubs*
Years	Club	Apps (points)
2004 -	Bulldogs	71 (116)
Representative teams**
2004 -	New Zealand	6 (8)
* Professional club appearances and points counted for domestic first grade only and correct as of 19 May 2008. ** Representative team caps and points correct as of 25 April 2008.

Sonny Bill Williams (born Sonny William Williams on August 3, 1985 in Auckland, New Zealand) is a rugby league player for the Canterbury Bulldogs in the National Rugby League. He has also represented his country playing for New Zealand. His position of choice is either in the second row or at lock, though he can also play at centre.

Contents 1 Career 2 On-field Actions 3 Tattoos 4 Controversies 5 Statistics 6 Honours 7 External links 8 References

[edit] Career

Sonny Bill Williams was signed with the Canterbury Bulldogs at the age of 16 and started playing in the S.G. Ball Cup for Under-18 players where in 2001 he was named 'SG Ball Player-of-the-Year'. In 2002 he went up the ranks and quickly became a starting player in the forward pack for the Bulldogs Jersey Flegg Cup side. The following year in 2003 Williams worked his way up again into Premier League, again cementing a starting spot in the side. As each year progressed Williams moved through the Bulldogs ranks and in Round 1 of the 2004 season, at only 18 years old, he made his NRL debut against the Parramatta Eels at Telstra Stadium.

In his debut performance in which, playing at centre, he dominated in defence, set up a number of tries and scored one for himself on debut. In the same year, he was selected to represent his country after only a handful of NRL matches and on April 23rd made his debut for New Zealand in the 2004 ANZAC Test against Australia. He went on through the year to play 15 first grade matches and firmly established himself in the Bulldogs squad. Furthermore, Williams was fortunate enough to experience Premiership success in his rookie year, playing off the bench in the Bulldogs 16 - 13 victory over the Sydney Roosters in the 2004 Grand Final. Sonny Bill Williams capped off a magnificent debut season by being presented with the International Newcomer of the Year Award and was named in the BBC's 2004 World XIII squad.^[1] He was also in close contention for the Dally M Rookie of the Year Award but lost to Brisbane Broncos fullback Karmichael Hunt.

As his contract was due to expire, Williams received several lucrative offers to attempt to lure him away from the Bulldogs, with the largest being from Super League club St. Helens in the UK worth about $3 million ^[2] Despite this many other offers, Williams decided to stay loyal to the club he had worked so hard to represent at first grade level and signed on for a further two years with the Bulldogs.

After making a huge impact on the NRL in his debut year, Williams had a disappointingly short 2005 season. A severe knee injury plus several other minor injuries restricted Williams to only five games through the year^{[citation needed]} and he subsequently missed several international fixtures for New Zealand. Williams had publicly expressed his frustration at his limited participation through the season stating "It seems like I've had injury after injury,". "More than anything, when you're not on the field a lot, it's tough mentally. You've got to be pretty strong mentally when you have injuries, and I've had a few." ^[3] Williams would later dismiss claims he was injury prone as "Bullsh*t stuff"^[4].

Williams had a greatly improved 2006 season after the disaster of 2005. He stayed relatively injury-free throughout the year playing in 21 matches, scoring 8 tries and just missing out on a Grand Final berth losing to eventual Premiers the Brisbane Broncos at the last hurdle in the Prelimanary Final. However, having been mostly injury free throughout the year, off-season surgery forced him to miss the Tri-Nations for the Kiwis for the second year running.

At the start of the 2007 season, Williams' contract status was a frequent news item in the Australia print media. All speculation was ended when Williams re-signed with the Bulldogs on the March 9, 2007, with a 5 year contract believed to be worth over $2.5 million that will see him stay with the club through to the 2012 season^[5] Commenting on the re-signing, Williams said "I'm happy to be staying here with the boys and I'm happy to be here with the Club. I want to be a Bulldog for life. The club is just as much apart of me a part of me as I am of the club. I love the Bulldogs" Coach Steve Folkes said "Sonny is a great athlete, a great footballer and will only get better over the next few years."^[6] When it came to the football Williams again was strong playing in 21 matches and scoring 14 tries. Unfortunately the season didn't end well as Williams broke his forearm in a tackle on Nathan Hindmarsh during the Semi Final against the Parramatta Eels and went straight from the field. Although the Dogs ended up losing the match and he wouldn't miss any club matches, once again Williams was ruled out from representing his country in the post-season 2007 Great Britain Tour due to the broken arm. For the first time in his career Williams was nominated for 'Second-Rower of the Year' at the 2007 Dally M Awards but lost the award to Manly Warringah Sea Eagles second-rower Anthony Watmough due to incurring 2 suspensions during the regular season. The rules state that if a player is suspended twice during the season, then he is ineligible to receive any awards.

[edit] On-field Actions

Sonny Bill is well known by all for his many talents, but he is famous for his ability to offload the ball in basically any situation and for his big hits. Some of the memorable victims of William's left shoulder include former Panther turned Bronco Joel Clinton in the 2004 Preliminary Final and Marcus Bai, former Leeds Rhinos winger, in the 2005 World Club Challenge in which he was partially knocked out from the force of the hit. Parramatta and Rugby League legend Peter Sterling claims that he has never seen a higher success rate or a better technique of the shoulder charge than Sonny Bill Williams.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Tattoos

Sonny Bill Williams has 4 tattoos. He has the words "WILLIAMS" tattooed in large letters across his back. He also has a very large traditional Samoan tattoo which goes from the top of his right shoulder and covers basically every inch of his arm down to his forearm which was designed and tattooed by Steve Ma Ching, Western Tattoos, New Lynn, Auckland, New Zealand. - Sonny's Tattoo on his right calf muscle was designed and tattooed by Joe Brown, Pacifican Tattoos, South Auckland, New Zealand.^{[citation needed]} These Samoan tattoos represent Sonny's ethnic heritage.

Sonny also has the words "Bulldogs Premiers 2004" in honour of the premiership triumph by Canterbury in 2004 also done by Steve Ma Ching.

[edit] Controversies

Sonny Bill Williams has been involved in a number of minor controversial off-field incidents. On August 17, 2005 it was revealed he had been charged with drunk driving; the Bulldogs fined Williams $10,000 over the incident and he was forced to appear in Waverley Local Court on September 7. He was convicted of drunk driving, with a blood alcohol level of .075. ^[7]

In 2007, Williams was caught in a compromising position with Australian model/ironwoman Candice Falzon. Several witnesses saw Williams and Falzon enter a toilet cubicle together at the Clovelly Hotel in Sydney. A photo taken by a mobile phone of the incident was published on the Daily Telegraph website. Williams later apologised to his girlfriend over this incident. ^[8]. He said he was "ashamed and embarrassed" about his drunken encounter with Candice Falzon. ^[9]

On June 17, 2007, Williams was caught by police urinating on a wall in a dark alley-way near a well known nightclub in Cronulla and was handed an infringement notice and fine worth $650 . ^[10] Williams has subsequently admitted he has an alcohol problem and would seek professional help for his problem. ^{[11] [12]}. He also said in an official statement that he would be "taking drastic measures to make sure this doesn’t happen again." ^{[13] [14]}

[edit] Statistics

Season	Matches	Tries	Goals	Points
2004	15	4	0	16
2005	5	1	0	4
2006	21	8	0	32
2007	21	14	0	56
2008	2	1	0	4

[edit] Honours

Individual

• 2004: International Newcomer of the Year
• 2004 World XIII

Canterbury Bulldogs

• 2004: Premiers

[edit] External links

• Sonny Bill Williams Official Profile
• Sonny Bill Williams NZRL Profile
• Sonny Bill Williams NRL Profile
• Official SBW Playing Statistics
• BBC Article Williams has world at his feet
• BBC Article Making big hits with Sonny Bill

[edit] References

v • d • e Bulldogs squad - 2004 NRL Premiers (8th Title) 1 Luke Patten • 2 Hazem El Masri • 3 Ben Harris • 4 Willie Tonga • 5 Matt Utai • 6 Braith Anasta • 7 Brent Sherwin  • 8 Mark O'Meley • 9 Adam Perry • 10 Roy Asotasi • 11 Willie Mason • 12 Andrew Ryan (c) • 13 Tony Grimaldi  • 14 Johnathan Thurston • 15 Corey Hughes • 16 Reni Maitua • 17 Sonny Bill Williams  • Coach: Steve Folkes

v • d • e Bulldogs - current squad Ryan (c) • El Masri • Hughes • Patten • Utai • Tonga • Williams • Maitua • Armit • Morrin • Phelps • Holdsworth • Emelio • Roberts • Hickey • Kouparitsas • Millard • Cleal • Te Maari • Winitana • Nanai • Bott • Groom • Leaneo • Sullivan • Thompson • Tsoulos • Warburton • Williams • Crisp • Coach: Folkes