Sonny Bill Williams to miss New Zealand's Rugby Championship clash against Australia

by The TRU Team Sunday 28 July 2019

Sonny Bill Williams played 59 minutes during the game against South Africa

©PA

New Zealand head coach Steve Hansen has confirmed that Sonny Bill Williams will miss the final round clash of the Rugby Championship against Australia in Perth.

Williams featured in All Blacks' 16-16 draw against South Africa in Wellington and it was his first Test appearance since 10th November after being sidelined with a hamstring injury.

Even though the 33-year-old played in 59 minutes during the game, Hansen reckons Williams will be better served featuring in Mitre10 Cup games for Auckland.

“He is going to play a couple of games over the next couple of weeks, which will be good,” said Hansen.

“He’ll be available for Perth, but we’re not going to take him. We’re going to get him to play two, or three…as many games as we can get in between there and Auckland.”

The New Zealand boss also said he was pleased with Williams' performance on his comeback game.

“The key thing we asked him to do was stay there and stay injury free. He did that,” the coach continued.

“He hasn’t played a lot of rugby and was rusty so we won’t get too judgmental about his rugby performance, the fact was his body held together that was encouraging.”