Sonny Bill Williams

Sonny Bill Williams
Personal information
Full nameSonny William Williams
Born (1985-08-03) 3 August 1985 (age 39)
Auckland, New Zealand
Height191 cm (6 ft 3 in)[1]
Weight108 kg (17 st 0 lb; 238 lb)[1]
Playing information
Rugby league
PositionSecond-row, Centre, Lock
Club
Years Team Pld T G FG P
2004–08 Canterbury Bulldogs 73 31 0 0 124
2013–14 Sydney Roosters 45 11 0 0 44
2020 Toronto Wolfpack 5 0 0 0 0
2020 Sydney Roosters 5 0 0 0 0
Total 128 42 0 0 168
Representative
Years Team Pld T G FG P
2004–13 New Zealand 12 5 0 0 20
Rugby union
PositionCentre, Wing
Club
Years Team Pld T G FG P
2008–10 Toulon 33 6 0 0 30
2010 Canterbury 7 4 0 0 20
2011 Crusaders 15 5 0 0 25
2012, 2014-2016 Chiefs 28 6 0 0 30
2012 Panasonic Wild Knights 7 2 0 0 10
2014–19 Counties Manukau 3 0 0 0 0
2017–19 Blues 18 1 0 0 5
Total 111 24 0 0 120
Representative
Years Team Pld T G FG P
2010–19 New Zealand 58 13 0 80
2016 New Zealand Sevens 7 4 0 0 20
Source: [2]
As of 16 July 2022

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.[3]

Williams began his career in rugby league, and has played as a second-row forward over eight seasons in three spells in the National Rugby League (NRL), with the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs and Sydney Roosters. 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 2020 he played for the Toronto Wolfpack in Super League, before moving to Sydney Roosters the same year.

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 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.[4]

  1. ^ a b "Stats | allblacks.com". Stats.allblacks.com. Retrieved 19 August 2022.
  2. ^ "Sonny Bill Williams - Career Stats & Summary - Rugby League Project".
  3. ^ "Former All Blacks centre Sonny Bill Williams turns focus to boxing". 10 March 2021.
  4. ^ Ganguly, Sudipto (15 December 2013). "Sonny Bill Williams stripped of boxing belts". Reuters. Retrieved 21 March 2019.