Sonny Bill Williams

Sonny William Williams (born 3 August 1985) is a New Zealand heavyweight boxer, and a former professional rugby league and rugby union player.

He is only the second person to represent New Zealand in rugby union after first playing for the country in rugby league, and is one of only 43 players to have won the Rugby World Cup twice.

Williams began his career in rugby league, and has played as a forward over eight seasons in three spells in the National Rugby League (NRL), with the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs and Sydney Roosters.

Williams was born on 3 August 1985, in Auckland, New Zealand, the son of a Samoan father, Ioane ("John") Williams and mother, Lee Woolsey who is half-New Zealander and half-Australian.

He has an older brother, John Arthur, and younger twin sisters, Niall and Denise.

Williams grew up in a working-class family in a state house in the Auckland suburb of Mount Albert.

In describing his struggling family background, Williams later said that the "driving factor" in his pursuit of playing professional rugby league was to "get my mum a house."

He attended Owairaka School, Wesley Intermediate and Mount Albert Grammar School.

As a child he has been described as being a "small, skinny white kid" who was "painfully shy", as well as "a freakish sporting talent, a competitive sprinter, a champion high jumper and cross country runner and the kid who played footy in teams a couple of age divisions above, to make things fairer."

Despite being tipped to have a promising future in athletics, Williams abandoned it when he was about twelve years old.

Though his father was an accomplished rugby league player, Williams has said it was his mother who introduced him to the game.

Williams was a Marist Saints junior when he was spotted playing in Auckland by Bulldogs talent scout John Ackland.

In 2002 he was offered a contract and moved to Sydney (as the youngest player to ever sign with an NRL club) to play in the Bulldogs' junior grades.

While training professionally, Williams worked full-time as a labourer.

He advanced up the ranks quickly: becoming a starting player in the forward pack for the Bulldogs' Jersey Flegg Cup side in his first year.

The following year Williams cemented a starting spot in the Premier League side.

He has won 12 caps for New Zealand (the Kiwis) and won the RLIF Awards for Rookie of the Year in 2004 and International Player of the Year in 2013.

In 2004, when eighteen years old, Williams made his NRL debut for Canterbury-Bankstown against the Parramatta Eels at Telstra Stadium.

In 2004, he was selected by New Zealand after only a handful of NRL games and on 23 April made his debut for the Kiwis as their youngest-ever Test player in the 2004 ANZAC Test against Australia.

He had previously played for the Junior Kiwis.

Williams played fifteen NRL matches during the season, establishing himself in the Canterbury squad.

He experienced premiership success in his debut season and became the youngest person to play for Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs in a grand final when playing off the bench in the Bulldogs' 16–13 victory over the Sydney Roosters in the 2004 NRL Grand Final.

Williams capped a successful debut season by receiving the 2004 RLIF Awards' International Newcomer of the Year Award and being named in Rugby League World magazine's 2004 World XIII.

As 2004 NRL premiers, Canterbury-Bankstown faced Super League IX champions, the Leeds Rhinos, in the 2005 World Club Challenge, which Canterbury lost 32–39.

Williams's contract was due to expire in 2005, and he received several offers to lure him away from the Bulldogs.

The largest offer was rumoured to be about $3 million from UK Super League club St Helens.

Williams decided to stay with Canterbury-Bankstown and signed on for a further two years.

St Helens chairman Eamonn McManus later said the club had not made an offer to him.

Williams had a shortened 2005 season after sustaining a severe knee injury and several minor injuries.

He played five games throughout the year and subsequently missed several internationals for New Zealand.

Williams expressed his frustration, stating "You've got to be pretty strong mentally when you have injuries, and I've had a few."

Williams later adamantly dismissed claims he was injury prone.

He first moved to rugby union in 2010 and played mainly as a centre for Toulon in France, Canterbury, Counties Manukau, the Crusaders, Chiefs and Blues in New Zealand and Panasonic Wild Knights in Japan.

He won 58 caps for New Zealand (the All Blacks), and was part of the teams that won the 2011 and 2015 World Cups.

He also represented NSW as a junior; however, in 2013, when the NSW team investigated whether he could represent them in State of Origin, it was found that he only met two of the five necessary qualifications.

He also played rugby sevens for New Zealand, competing in the 2015–16 World Rugby Sevens Series and the 2016 Olympics.

He retired from both rugby codes in March 2021.

Williams has boxed professionally ten times.

He was the New Zealand Professional Boxing Association (NZPBA) Heavyweight Champion and World Boxing Association (WBA) International Heavyweight Champion, but was stripped of these titles after failing to respond to challenges.

In 2020 he played for the Toronto Wolfpack in Super League, before moving to Sydney Roosters the same year.