Santa's warning to Sonny Bill Williams

Santa's warning to Sonny Bill Williams

By Dave Murray

December 22, 2008

SONNY Bill Williams is back on the footy field but his return has been greeted with a Christmas message from his eccentric French boss - "Santa Claus is going to buy some of my players train and airline tickets out of Toulon."

Williams' Toulon side crashed to another defeat at the weekend - thrashed 33-8 at Montpellier - taking them to within a point of relegation to second division.

SBW came on as a second-half substitute but looked tentative and lacked his normal physical presence.

Toulon's woeful performance prompted another outburst from hot-headed president Mourad Boudjellal that will have alarm bells ringing for former NRL star Williams and his new rugby teammates.

"Terrible," Boudjellal stormed. "Father Christmas is going to buy train and airline tickets for some players."

Williams played at outside centre in only his second game since being sidelined for three months with a broken leg. With his teammates rapidly tiring, he had little chance to get involved.
Toulon conceded 25 points in the 40 minutes Williams was on the field.

One Toulon source said: "Sonny Bill needs time, but it is true to say his performance at Montpellier was no improvement on what we saw briefly before he was injured. He still has no impact on the game and now looks to have lost size and power."

Williams has the backing of besieged coach Tana Umaga as he tries to settle into a new code and country and keep off the list of injured players.

"There are many who believe Boudjellal's threats do not apply to (Williams) because he is still under the protection of the coach, Tana Umaga, who convinced the president to buy him in the first place," the Toulon observer said.

But Umaga's job is far from safe and he'll be gone from Toulon if the team drops from the top division, raising questions about what would become of the richly rewarded Williams.

http://www.foxsports.com.au/story/0,...-23217,00.html

the Toulon boss sounds like a bit of a wanka, i mean seriously he splashes millions around on players and coaches, yet he spends next to nothing on junior development and the facilities..

apparently the facilities at Toulon a terrible and no where near up to standard, if he had a larger focus on development of the club rather then just recruiting they would be better off today.

Watched a game with Toulon - they seem to have a team of primas and no communication (possibly to many languages) the most outstanding feature of the game was the complete lack of defence.

The only one who was actually any use was Henjak - it was during the Wallabies Tour - frustrating to say the least.