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Super 14 door open for Sonny Bill
SMH | Tuesday, 19 August 2008
Super 14 door open for Sonny Bill - New Zealand's source for sport, rugby, cricket & league news on Stuff.co.nz
Sonny Bill Williams could be playing rugby union for a Super 14 team by the 2010 season, but the NRL has reserved the right to block him from ever returning to the competition as part of his A$750,000 (NZ$917,000) settlement deal with the Bulldogs.
The NRL insisted on a clause in the agreement finalised yesterday enabling it to take into account the manner in which Williams quit the Dogs if he seeks to play in the Telstra premiership at some time in the future.
The same clause applies to any future application Williams's manager Khoder Nasser, who has been linked with Melbourne star Greg Inglis, may make to become an accredited NRL agent.
Another condition of the deal, which was finalised when Anthony Mundine paid A$750,000 to the Bulldogs on behalf of Williams to gain his formal release, prohibits the 23-year-old from joining any other NRL club until the end of the 2012 season - the expiry date of the five-year contract he walked out on.
But a return to the NRL is now the furthest thing from Williams's mind now that he is free to pursue his dream of playing for the All Blacks in the 2011 Rugby World Cup, and he will line up for his second match for French rugby union club Toulon tomorrow night against Saracens.
In return for the massive payout, which was described by Bulldogs chief executive Todd Greenberg as "the biggest compensation payment in Australian sport", all legal action against Williams, Nasser and Toulon has been dropped.
As a result, Williams is free to join a Super 14 side in Australia or New Zealand after the expiry of his A$1.5 million-a-season deal with Toulon, which is for one year with an option for a second.
"It's not a particularly happy day for the Bulldogs as it's the end of Sonny Bill's association with the club," Greenberg said last night. "But we're pleased with the outcome and, as far as we're concerned, the book is now closed on this chapter in the club's history and we can move on."
It is understood the Bulldogs and the NRL are yet to determine the final split of legal costs totalling more than A$300,000 from their desperate bid to prevent Williams from playing elsewhere, which included three court appearances and threats to seize his assets or even have him arrested if he returned to Australia.
It is believed Williams's equity in the A$1.3 million house he bought at Caringbah in 2006 was less than A$200,000 and, if the Bulldogs hadn't accepted his offer to pay A$750,000, he was prepared to defy the court injunction and continue playing for Toulon after sitting out last Thursday night's match against Toulouse while negotiations took place.
NRL chief executive David Gallop had threatened to ban Williams for life, and it was written into the deed of agreement that the settlement would not prevent the NRL from taking his or Nasser's conduct into account in:
• considering or determining any application Williams may in the future make to be a registered player in the NRL competition;
• contesting any application that Nasser may in the future make to be an accredited NRL player agent, and;
• determining any application that either may in the future make to be associated with the NRL or the NRL competition.
"It has been made clear that there is no guarantee of him being re-registered down the track," Gallop said. "It's difficult to see how that would happen now."
Nasser has never been an accredited player agent but that did not prevent Williams from approaching him to look after his affairs and would not stop him managing Inglis - but he would not be able to negotiate a new contract with an NRL club.
In a twist, Mundine last night declared himself as Williams's co-manager.
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