Sonny Bill Williams

Sonny Bill Williams was born on 3 August 1985 in Auckland, New Zealand. He is a professional boxer and a former player in both rugby league and rugby union. He is one of only two people to have played for New Zealand in rugby union after first representing the country in rugby league, and he is among just 44 players to have won the Rugby World Cup twice.

Williams started his career in rugby league, playing as a forward across three separate stints in the National Rugby League (NRL) with the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs and the Sydney Roosters. He earned 12 caps for the New Zealand Kiwis and received the RLIF Rookie of the Year award in 2004 and the International Player of the Year award in 2013. In 2020, he played for the Toronto Wolfpack in Super League before returning to the Sydney Roosters later that year.

He switched to rugby union in 2010, primarily playing centre for Toulon in France, Canterbury, Counties Manukau, the Crusaders, Chiefs, and Blues in New Zealand, and the Panasonic Wild Knights in Japan. He earned 58 caps for the All Blacks and was part of the squads that won the 2011 and 2015 Rugby 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.

In boxing, Williams has fought eleven times as a heavyweight. He held the NZPBA Heavyweight Championship and the WBA International Heavyweight Championship, but lost both titles after failing to respond to challenges.

Williams grew up in a working-class family in a state house in Mount Albert, Auckland. His father, Ioane Williams, is Samoan, and his mother, Lee Woolsey, is a Pākehā New Zealander of English descent; his maternal grandmother was from Australia. He has an older brother, John Arthur, and younger twin sisters, Niall and Denise. He attended Owairaka School, Wesley Intermediate, and Mount Albert Grammar School. As a child, he was described as a small, skinny, painfully shy white kid with freakish athletic talent—a competitive sprinter, champion high jumper, and cross-country runner who played football in older age groups. He gave up athletics around age twelve. Although his father played rugby league, Williams says his mother introduced him to the sport.

Williams was a Marist Saints junior when Bulldogs scout John Ackland spotted him in Auckland. In 2002, he signed a contract and moved to Sydney, becoming the youngest player ever to sign with an NRL club. While training, he worked full-time as a labourer. He quickly moved up through the Bulldogs' junior grades, starting in the Jersey Flegg Cup side and then cementing a spot in the Premier League team. He represented NSW as a junior, but in 2013 an investigation found he met only two of five qualifications needed to play State of Origin for NSW.

In 2004, at age eighteen, Williams made his NRL debut for Canterbury-Bankstown against Parramatta. After just a few NRL games, he was selected for New Zealand and made his Test debut on 23 April 2004 in the ANZAC Test against Australia, becoming the youngest-ever Kiwis Test player. He played fifteen NRL matches that season and was part of the Bulldogs' 16–13 grand final victory over the Sydney Roosters, becoming the youngest player to appear in a grand final for the club. He capped his debut season by winning the RLIF International Newcomer of the Year award and being named in Rugby League World's 2004 World XIII. As NRL premiers, the Bulldogs lost the 2005 World Club Challenge to Leeds Rhinos, 32–39.

His contract was due to expire in 2005, and he received several offers, including a rumoured $3 million from St Helens, though the club's chairman later denied making an offer. Williams re-signed with the Bulldogs for two more years. The 2005 season was shortened by a severe knee injury and several minor injuries, limiting him to five games and causing him to miss internationals. He dismissed claims he was injury-prone. In 2006, he stayed relatively healthy, playing 21 matches and scoring eight tries, but the Bulldogs lost in the preliminary final to the eventual premiers, Brisbane. Off-season surgery forced him to miss the Tri-Nations for a second straight year. In the first game of 2007, he was sent off and suspended for two weeks for a high tackle on Andrew Johns.