Toronto Wolfpack’s Sonny Bill Williams happy to shoulder expectation in Super League

THE footage of a young Sonny Bill Williams smashing Leeds Rhinos hardman Ryan Bailey, then tracking across the Elland Road pitch to do the same to Marcus Bai in the very next tackle, is something that never fails to make viewers shudder.

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It is 15 years ago since the acclaimed Kiwi marauded around for Canterbury Bulldogs in the World Club Challenge, reminding everyone of just what a talent he was.

Williams was only 19 at the time but already a colossus.

Sonny Bill Williams playing for Canterbury Bulldogs against Leeds Rhinos in the World Club Challenge in 2005. (Photo by Laurence Griffiths/Getty Images)

Granted, Leeds went on to win the trophy but, by the end, any British rugby league fans who may have wondered what all the SBW fuss was about had been truly enlightened.

Former Rhinos forward Jamie Jones-Buchanan, hardly a shrinking violet himself, tells a wonderful tale about how he was due to take in the next carry.

However, having witnessed two of his toughest colleagues firmly floored, opted to ‘stay wide and keep some shape’.

A wise man, indeed; Williams – who has won two World Cups with the All Blacks and also been a heavyweight boxing champion – had that aura about him back then and still does now.

Toronto Wolfpack's Sonny Bill Williams is interviewed.

He was back in Leeds yesterday but across the city at Emerald Headingley, home of the Rhinos and home of the Betfred Super League 2020 season launch.

Williams, of course, is preparing himself for his first taste of Super League action after joining Toronto Wolfpack on a two-year £6m deal – the biggest-ever in either code.

It remains to be seen if he will be fit in time for the newcomers’ opener against Castleford Tigers at Headingley a week tomorrow.

But what about that night in 2005?

“That was a long time ago,” he told The Yorkshire Post. “I need to jog the memory banks to remember exactly what’s gone on back then.

“But I do remember facing a very tough Rhinos team and I remember it was very heated. They were a fiery, fiery bunch of lads. So to know that ‘Coach’ was on the coaching staff then makes a lot of sense.

“They were a great team and unfortunately we didn’t win that game but that was my second time playing over here. It was nice.”

The ‘Coach’ who Williams refers to is Brian McDermott, the Toronto chief who helped persuade him to take up their lucrative offer to entice him back from rugby union and who was Leeds assistant coach in 2005.

A fellow boxer, they have plenty in common.

Williams became world-famous for those shoulder charges that rocked opponents.

Back then, as such a young but imposing presence, did he feel unstoppable as he launched into such fearsome hits?