No more SBW in black

Only a good thing for his rugby opponents i guess, but i can't help feeling the game will miss a major talent:

SONNY BILL WILLIAMS will announce today that he has played his last Test for the All Blacks unless he returns to New Zealand rugby union after an expected stint with Sydney Roosters.
Williams, who has signed a lucrative deal with Japanese rugby powerhouse Panasonic Wild Knights understood to be worth more than $1.2 million for 12 games, has advised the NZRU that he will not return to the country to play next season.
The 26-year-old dual international, whose five-year ban from the NRL after walking out on the Bulldogs in 2008 will have expired, will leave New Zealand as soon as his commitments with the Chiefs are over next month.
As a result, he will not play for the All Blacks in the upcoming Bledisloe Cup clashes with the Wallabies or in the Rugby Championship, which replaces the Tri Nations.
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However, Williams will not make any announcement on his anticipated move to the Roosters, and the Herald understands he is yet to finalise a deal with the NRL club for next season.
Should he do so, Williams will be free to join the club in January when Japan's Top League season ends.


Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-league/league-news/prodigal-sonny-to-return-as-a-rooster-20120708-21pk0.html#ixzz204Xus4kZ

Yeah big loss for rugby fans in general. Whether you love him or hate him, it's hard to deny that he added something to our game.

Yea. I think most people thought he'd be heading back to NRL after his lack of game time during the WC, but I thought he might of changed his mind considering the Chiefs good run this year. Then again it is Hamilton..

Bad news for the All Blacks, the Chiefs and Rugby overall. I can understand him going to Japan for 1.2Million over 12 games. Thats a lucrative and short offer that could set you up for life. You only have to do it once and your set, then after you can return to NZ and play out for Rugby days, but unfortunately he's deciding to go to our rival code. Bascially he is saying that League is better, better even then playing for the AB's. That is very disappointing.

Big loss, I agree he added a lot to Rugby, loved watching him.

The bloke needs his head read. How dissapointing for the NZRU to have backed him in and helped develop him into a international level player, only for him to turn his back on them.

Don't get me wrong, free will and all that. People are free to make their own decisions, but it was a waste of resources the NZRU could have spent on a young guy.

I think it really says that he craves the attention that he'll get being a rugby league player in Sydney. The night clubs, the women, people who appreciate his tatoos.

That is part and parcel of professional sport these days. The same could be said of the Force and JOC (and possibly Pocock?), the Waratahs and Beale, the Reds and Higgers and the list goes on and on.

No organisation can plan to allocate their resources in a manner that takes into account what decisions a player might make a few years down the track.

Is anyone even remotely surprised by this?

Just weird. I mean, who really gives a flying fuck if the Roosters or the Bulldogs or the Titans win the NRL? You'd think after playing rugby all around the world he'd wake up to himself. Goose.

Maybe he wants to play for QLD in the origin?

Finally, he announced it.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/rugby/all-blacks/7245221/Sonny-Bill-Williams-says-Sayonara-to-NZRU

Brad Thorn went from NRL > Super Rugby > NRL > Super Rugby and is considered as one of the great sportsmen amoung both codes. SBW is on the same path and criticised for it. I think he has a lot of personal motivation to play in the NRL given how he left, if he wanted a payday he'd be back in France or on a long term contract in Japan.

None of the other comparisons hold water because those guys stayed in Rugby. Movement between clubs is to be expected.

SBW defection to NRL is unprecedented. Can anyone remember another top flight international rugby player defecting to another sport at the height of their international career?

I would say the AB bridge is well and truly burnt over this.

Karmichael Hunt, Isreal Folou, Lote Tuqiri, Mark Gasnier

Did Brad Thorne leave the ABs to play NRL?

I think its a little different. International union is more significant then international league. The league world cup is rubbish. Union is much more or a world-game. To leave the wallabies at he height of your career would be very strange. Its even more strange for a NZ'er to leave the ABs at the height of there international career.

I think in Brad Thornes case (I could be wrong), he left international league in pursuit of an ABs career. Sonny is doing things backwards.

Yes

Thorn played for the Abs in 12 tests including the 2003 WC, then went back to NRL in 05, then back 2 union in 08.

No, exact same path.