SBW eyes Olympics in Rio

Code-hopping Sonny Bill Williams has Olympic aspirations - he wants to win a medal at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games playing rugby sevens.

In heartening news for rugby fans, it is understood that Williams plans to return to the 15-man game by 2015 to try to reclaim his ABs jersey in time for that year's world cup in England.

But Williams' aspirations as a pro boxer may lead him to quit all rugby after the 2016 Olympics.

Williams, who has a fight against South African Francois Botha on February 9 for the WBA International heavyweight title, will play rugby league with the Sydney Roosters for this season but has made no commitments beyond that but the Sunday Star-Times has learned he has a tentative road map for the remainder of an unusual career that has taken him from league to rugby and back to league while also taking on professional boxing.

Williams would like to play, if selected, for the Kiwis at this year's league world cup, and is open-minded about playing league or rugby in 2014. He will return to rugby before 2015 to fight for his ABs jersey ahead of the world cup in England. The following year he would spend on boxing and rugby sevens, with an eye to the Rio Olympics, before boxing fulltime.

Williams and his manager Khoder Nasser wouldn't talk directly on their long-term plans, with Williams saying he didn't want to look too far ahead.

But Williams did say he was motivated by challenges. "When I am finished, I just want to say I have tried lots of things, and I've done as well as I can."

It's thought the Williams' camp sees the treble of winning a league world cup, being in the first All Blacks team to win a rugby world cup offshore and then succeeding at the Olympics in sevens is the biggest sporting challenge he could take on.

Not sure what coach Gordon Tietjens has to say about SBW's aspirations.

Fairfax media

the thought of SBW returning to union fills me with a lot of joy, i can here the tremble of fear running through our saffa brothers at the thought of SBW retuning once more to terrorise the union world, lolz. we all expected it or should have though, ive been consistently saying that SBW will be returning to the 15 man game in time for the RWC, but IMO he should return next year and hook up with his boys from the chiefs who he said he had the best comradery with out of all the teams hes played in.

real big ask to say the kiwis will win the RLWC, im sure even u brycy know that the kangaroos will be the heavy favourites. the kiwis do have some talent to boot though and the tournament format is perfect for the kiwis to gel and get their team synergy and mojo sorted, so u never know.

as for the 7s, SBW could be huge in the 7s game, especially as i dont see legend dj forbes lasting the distance, so 7s forward pack of SBW, tim mickelson and ben lam will give us some serious grunt and go forward cos they will struggle to contain SBW big time. but i do have two concerns,
1) will tiches be interested??? he has stated that he will need players to commit to the 7s routine/way of life if they are to be considered for rio and
2) will SBW be good in 7s??? there have been plenty of good players in the past who failed when going from 15- 7s and given the amount of time that SBW has actually played, i have some serious questions. there are plenty of 7s players out there now who would be able to exploit SBWs novice in that sport, so it could potentially be risky, but more than likely it will be the key for us to follow in the steps of the commonwealth games and win nothing but gold.

..sasu..i agree - the SBW roadshow might be too much for Tietjins.

Not every coach is gunna cater to SBW's every whim but he would probably be an asset being such a natural athlete and especially given his ability to draw in multiple defenders and still get a pass away. 

He can always come back and play for Counties Manukau if that does'nt work out. lol. I think his mum lives around here somewhere...

Re; 2013 Rugby League WC. Kiwis werent favourites last time either ....

Will be another big ask for sure.

The Aussies don't have their supreme leader Darren Lockyer anymore though and i clearly can still remember how gutted he was to lose the WC to the Kiwis.

Ricky Stewart's reaction was far worse and he probably still has'nt gotten over that game yet either LMAO.

We can't rely on Slater to have another shocker like last time though. Will be an epic battle regardless.

Could easily go either way and SBW should add some starch to the side. Hopefully he'll remember that shoulder charges are now off the menu

@brycy,
 

agrees with the value he gives 7s, so i guess tich needs to weigh up a few things like does he want a huge asset towrds gold by catering to SBW, or reward those who have been loyal to the cause??? given tich aint getting any younger and that forbes is unlikely to play at RIO (IMO), SBW does have a few real god pros to add him into the 7s.
as long as hes back for the 2015 RWC, im not too fussed with what he does afterwards, :o)

but as for the league, ricky stewarts reaction was just as good as winning the RLWC, abusing the ref at the hotel had me LMAO big time when i heard it, i wonder if stewarts got a bit of saffa in his blood, o_O???

lockyear may be gone, but that just means thurston is the new king of the kangaroos block and i cant help but feel maybe its better to have lockyear, lolz.
IMO the 4 most important positins in league when it comes to attacks and playmaking options is hooker, halfback, flyhalf and fullback, for australia that = camerons smith, cooper cronk, jonthan thurston and bily slater. i mean jeebers, to say nothing of the other shoe ins like ingliss and gallen,,,,,sigh,,,,

but the kiwis arent without stars of their own and SBW can only increase both our firepower and defence, so hopefully shoulder tackles arent banned on an international level, cos thats advantage kiwis.
good luck to the boys all the same and ill be cheering them to the end hard, :o)

SBW will have real opposition come 2015 World Cup with Serfontain ;)

@shezza,
not if the Boks are playing anything like they have been the last 10 years.

also serofntain is not proven in spXV level let alone the BOKs, i remember similar sentiments being said about waynard olivier when he was rising through the jr ranks and what sad joke that turned out to be,,,well not for me im All Blacks all the way, :oP

Sheeza

I think there are three requirments for Srvens selection, namely

*    ball sesnse;

*   speed; and

*    strength

The ideal situation is a combo of the above three elements - and I doubt not that the Olymoic squad of countries will be different to the ones playing at present in annual compeitions.   Players like Serfotein, Jordaan ans Swiel is likely to be in the squad in 2015.

Brycy and Sasue

Do you really think that SBW will make a good sevens player?   I have my doubts about that one

Sasu judging by the warm up game I wouldn't be surprised if he proved the hype surrounding him true :)

Mike I was referring more to the Rugby union WC in 2015

@mikey,

thats a tough one answer bro, cos as i hinted i have a few reservations too about SBW 7s performance, but as brycy siad he is a natural athlete so chances are he would be good.

i can see him playing a role similar to that of dj forbes and ben lam, if u ever get a chance to watch the NZ 7s team play, take a look at what these guys do in genreal play, which is draw in dfenders by muscling ur way thorugh when stragihting up the attack. they then look for the offload which SBW revolutionised in rugby, often imitated but never beaten. so SBW will most likely have tremendous value in the 7s game.
gordon tijens is a super smart 7s coach and he will shape SBW into the 7s player he needs him to be for the kiwis, so ive now deicded after posting this comment that he will be awesome in 7s, LMAO, :oP

@shezza,

guess we can only wait and see, but i hope history dosent repeat itself, cos these are the very same comments about waynard olivier coming through the ranks adn we all know how that turned out.

BTW shezza, are u interested in joing up with the sarugby.com fantasy rugby on foxsport??? -_o

Sasue

I have seen the NZ  sevens team play frequently and yes the players mentioned by you meets all the requirements I mentioned above.  

I did not say anything about SBW - but there may be just one problem.  Even though Brycy says he is a natural athlete - does he have the speed to deal with the very fast players he will meet in a much more open field than he has to deal with in 15 man rugby?   Let me mention an example - in the final of Super 15 last year in a much tighter game Jordaan twice ran circles around him - and there are many other players in Sevens that could do just that.     Still not convinced he would make the grade.

@mikey,
not sure i remember the running circles on SBW by jordaan, so feel free to correct me and if possible point out the time of these incidents, o_O

but i do remember jordaan inn the 25th minute making a real good run and bouncing of tikoirtuma the speeding away from messam and barlow to be just put of balance by robinson, that amounted to nothing though as the chiefs turned the ball over. SBW was on the other side of the filed at the time of that run.

then in the 41st minute from a sharks scrum outside their 22, lambie passed a bad ball to jordaan who cleaned up and beat kane thompson and was offset by mesaam before being tackled by cruden. again no SBW and these were jordaans only reall ball in hand contributions for the night.

SBW is a lot faster than people realise, but compared to jordaan who by some accounts was one of the fastest in the blitzboks, of course hes going to appear slow.
but u forget that SBW is way faster than dj forbes and he has been the anchor of the NZ 7s team.

FYI during the NRL, SBW was the fastest bulldog over 40meters, accelration is high even if top end speed is not.

im quite confident he would make a great 7s players, but it will be other factors which will determine wether he makes the team at all.

Sasu I wouldn't mind but I don't get don't of the tactics people are using :/ like why is everyone getting players which they think will perform decent but are cheap why not just get the best person for each position even if they are cheap or expensive? 

Sasu I wouldn't mind but I don't get don't of the tactics people are using :/ like why is everyone getting players which they think will perform decent but are cheap why not just get the best person for each position even if they are cheap or expensive? 

 @shezza,

Because everyone has certain amount of cash to spend on players. if unpicked only thosenu expect tpreform, mainly the good players, u would quickly run out of cash, so alot of fun tatics/magement involved.

U should give it a crack, its pretty fun, :o)