Sonny still thrills

I was only fourteen when Sonny Bill Williams vanished overnight from rugby league.

I couldn’t quite fathom just how one of the most unique talents in the sport was so unceremoniously lost to the game.

How someone of such extraordinary ability and drawing-power could literally walk out on their club, teammates and fans without a second glance was beyond me, as was the seemingly inadequate response from the NRL at the time.

The entire rugby league world was up in arms over the entire debacle, which caused me to think; if it was someone of lesser talent and prominence who did the same thing, would the reaction have been the same?

I don’t think so. In my opinion, although the manner in which Sonny left certainly was far from ideal, the main reason it hit the rugby league world so hard was the fact that he was just so damn good.

It is rare that a player can be equally as fearsome in attack as they are in defence, which Sonny most definitely was.

His shoulder-charges were the most prominent images from the NRL’s advertising campaigns at the time and his hard-running style combined with his offloading ability was the foundation for the Bulldog’s offensive style for most of the time he was there.

In short, Sonny was a human highlight reel and when he left, much to the NRL’s dismay, he took his magnificence with him.

That being said, when he announced that five years after he left, he would be returning to the game that he dumped overnight, I was cautious as to whether he would be the player that he was.

Now that we’re six rounds into the season, I can safely say that he’s nowhere near the player he was. He is so, so, so much better.

Although the iconic shoulder-charge is gone, along with his foundational element to his team’s offence, his pure football ability has not only remained, it’s grown.

Defensively he’s solid as a steel wall, missing only one tackle across his first six games and making more than he ever did before leaving (including a career high 38 tackles against the Broncos in Round 3).

His ability to get his right hand free still poses a distinct threat to any side that lines up against him.

However, the thing that has really impressed me about the new-and-improved Sonny Bill has been the sheer quality of all of his touches.

Last Friday night against the Bulldogs, he hardly touched the ball in the opening fifty minutes, but the three touches he had in that time all contributed to points for the Roosters.

Two of those touches were pieces of individual brilliance that he finished off himself while the other was a beautiful twenty metre bullet pass that sent Tuivasa-Sheck over the line.

This pass, which is becoming somewhat of a signature play for Sonny, he would not have been able to do five years ago.

In fact, the pass was so impressive that Andrew Johns is quoted as saying, “eleven people in the world could have made that pass. Ten of them are halfbacks and the other is Sonny Bill Williams.”

It is astounding that after so long out rugby league he can not only fit in seamlessly to the flow and style of the game, but he is able to thrill the fans even more than he did five years ago.