Ok, it’s fair to say that some sports stars are more ego than talent. Then there are those stars who ARE that damn good, but they then have to irritate the hell out of us by constantly reminding us of this – I’m looking at you LeBron James, Colin Kaepernick and Meta World Wide Web (or whatever it is).
It’s no secret as well that I’m not a Sonny Bill Williams fan. So when I heard he may be coming back from the Australian National Rugby League (NRL) to the New Zealand Rugby Union Super Rugby circles, I was not happy. In one of my previous articles I detailed what I perceive as the many transgressions of Williams, and his general mercenary attitude. However, it recently came to light Williams has resigned with his League team, the Sydney City Roosters, for another year. Excited, I certainly was.
That is until I heard Williams has then decided he wants to be included in the New Zealand Rugby League World Cup squad.
Are you freaking kidding me???
This money grubbing thug has already sold out his first league club, come back to the All Blacks to get his name on the Rugby World Cup, then turned his back and now he wants another accolade to bolster his stock portfolio? This is just ridiculous.
No, wait, that’s not ridiculous. What’s ridiculous is the fact that as the League Cup squad had already been announced, sans Williams, the coach would have been well within his rights to say “Sorry mate, you said you weren’t keen to play, we filled your spot.” Did Kiwi Coach Stephen Kearney do that? Did he.. bollocks. No, instead he kicks out a confirmed member of the squad – Rookie Tohu Harris being told “thanks but no thanks” – in favour of this moronic show pony of a player.
Kearney has made a massive error in judgement by permitting this turn events. He has undermined the credibility of the Kiwi league team, and shattered the dreams of an innocent bystander (he wasn’t a bystander, but is now). He has allowed Williams’ ego to dictate events, he has made the player bigger than the team and that is just flat out wrong.
Now I’m almost at full nerd rage here, but I was holding it together. Until I read online that after the 2014 season Williams will probably come back to Rugby Union.
To play in the 2015 Rugby World Cup.
The sentence I would like to type here would never get past the editors. Or any censorship board on the planet. Suffice to say it is punctuated with references to where Mr Williams can insert various objects into various holes, and places he can go to with variants on the theme of “off”
Sure, this is a business. Players move teams, just as they do in any professional league. I’m fine with that. But when a player holds an entire national side to ransom based entirely on his own whims…That I can not tolerate. I am actually outraged at the level of damage Williams is being allowed to continue to wreak, and no one in the selection squads seems to give a damn.
I’m going to end this column on something of a controversial note therefore…
I’m supporting the Kangaroos in the Rugby League World Cup. If Kearney wants to make the team about one player, then I can’t get behind that. I won’t get behind that. I am utterly disgusted at what our team has become and I for one am no longer a fan.
Thanks for reading, you can follow me on Twitter @lastwordkyle; as well as our fellow LWOS rugby writers –@richfergie and @Daniel_Ford_1 . Give the site a follow while you’re at it – @lastwordonsport.
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