SBW on verge of NRL return: report

Updated January 01, 2012 11:16:59

All Black Sonny Bill Williams is reportedly considering joining the Sydney Roosters in 2013 for double the pay he left rugby league for in 2008.

Williams is on the verge of signing a $4 million five-year deal to return to the NRL with the Roosters, The Sunday Telegraph reported.

An agreement was all but finalised over a breakfast meeting in Circular Quay in Sydney on Saturday with Roosters chairman Nick Politis and Channel Nine executive David Gyngell.

Williams was a member of the All Blacks team that won the 2011 Rugby World Cup.

He has a one-season deal with rugby union Super 15 franchise Waikato Chiefs but there has been speculation he will return to league.

He will join the Roosters in 2013 on $800,000 a season, double what he was on when he walked out on the Bulldogs in 2008 to join Toulon in French rugby union, The Telegraph reported.

The Sydney Morning Herald reported that a clause in his deed of release from the Bulldogs prohibits him from playing with a rival NRL club until this year.

The All Blacks midfielder is also taking on veteran fighter Richard Tutaki for the vacant New Zealand heavyweight belt on February 8.

AAP

Tags: sport, rugby-league, nrl, rugby-union, australia, nsw, bondi-junction-2022, new-zealand

First posted January 01, 2012 11:11:43

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Cipriani seeking Melbourne exit: report

Posted May 19, 2011 21:16:00

Unsettled English rugby star Danny Cipriani is looking to quit Melbourne Rebels after a troubled start to his career with the Super 15 outfit, The Guardian reported Thursday.

A report on the paper's website said Cipriani's representatives had contacted Premiership side Bath about the possibility of the 23-year-old fly half returning to English rugby.

It follows an unhappy stint in Australia which has seen the player repeatedly dropped for breaches of discipline.

"We have been contacted by Danny Cipriani's representatives but he is not top of our list," Bath chief executive Nick Blofeld was quoted as saying.

"Danny is a very talented player but we don't know what has happened in Australia yet and we didn't want to go off-strategy and sign somebody at the last minute. But he is someone we have looked at before and somebody we could look at again."

Regarded as one of English rugby's most talented young players, Cipriani's career has been dogged by off-field problems as well as tensions with team-mates and coaches.

- AFP

Tags: sport, rugby-union, super-14, australia, vic, melbourne-3000, england

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