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Chiefs give Sonny Bill Williams thinking time
Sonny Bill Williams has less than two weeks to decide whether he will return to New Zealand rugby union next year or play another season with Sydney Roosters.
While Williams does not necessarily have to sign with the Roosters within that time, the Chiefs need an answer if he is returning to play for them by October 22 as that is the cut-off date for New Zealand Super Rugby franchises to finalise their squads. Speculation that the former All Blacks superstar would farewell league at the end of the World Cup intensified after Williams and his manager Khoder Nasser met Chiefs technical director Wayne Smith, coach Dave Rennie and NZRU general manager Neil Sorensen on Thursday at a Brighton-Le-Sands restaurant.
However, Fairfax Media was told that reports Williams had signed with the NZRU and Chiefs were incorrect and no decision is expected before he flies to England with the Kiwis next week. ''We want Sonny to come back to the Chiefs, there is no secret about that, so we are over here to have a meeting with him,'' Smith said. ''We were always going to wait until after the NRL grand final and then see where we stand. That is what we have done. The immediacy of the meeting is simply because we have got to name our squads shortly, so the timetable was always going to be this.'
Williams, who won the Jack Gibson Medal as Roosters player of the year on Wednesday night, is understood to be torn between staying with the club for another season or returning to the Chiefs a year earlier than he had intended. His contract with the Roosters expired after the grand final but he has committed to playing for New Zealand in the Rugby League World Cup, which begins on October 26 and concludes with the final at Old Trafford on November 30.
Chiefs give Sonny Bill Williams thinking time
Sonny Bill Williams has less than two weeks to decide whether he will return to New Zealand rugby union next year or play another season with Sydney Roosters.
While Williams does not necessarily have to sign with the Roosters within that time, the Chiefs need an answer if he is returning to play for them by October 22 as that is the cut-off date for New Zealand Super Rugby franchises to finalise their squads. Speculation that the former All Blacks superstar would farewell league at the end of the World Cup intensified after Williams and his manager Khoder Nasser met Chiefs technical director Wayne Smith, coach Dave Rennie and NZRU general manager Neil Sorensen on Thursday at a Brighton-Le-Sands restaurant.
However, Fairfax Media was told that reports Williams had signed with the NZRU and Chiefs were incorrect and no decision is expected before he flies to England with the Kiwis next week. ''We want Sonny to come back to the Chiefs, there is no secret about that, so we are over here to have a meeting with him,'' Smith said. ''We were always going to wait until after the NRL grand final and then see where we stand. That is what we have done. The immediacy of the meeting is simply because we have got to name our squads shortly, so the timetable was always going to be this.'
Williams, who won the Jack Gibson Medal as Roosters player of the year on Wednesday night, is understood to be torn between staying with the club for another season or returning to the Chiefs a year earlier than he had intended. His contract with the Roosters expired after the grand final but he has committed to playing for New Zealand in the Rugby League World Cup, which begins on October 26 and concludes with the final at Old Trafford on November 30.
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