NRL 2020: James Tedesco’s brilliance overshadows Sonny Bill Williams’ return to NRL

After one of the great and controversial Grand Finals last year, the second game between the Canberra Raiders and the Sydney Roosters was always going to be a big one with the reigning champions coming out with 18-6 winners.

But while the two teams battle for the top four in 2020, the incredibly publicized comeback of Sonny Bill Williams threatened to overshadow the game.

While the social media jokes about running live updates of the returning 35-year-old star’s every move weren’t too far off the mark, they only showed the interest that has followed SBW for his entire career.

With two seasons at the NRL and a 58-Test veteran for the All Blacks, Williams landed another shot at the NRL after the COVID-19 pandemic allowed him to exit his $ 10 million Toronto Wolfpack contract to return to Australia. .

16 years after his debut in the NRL, he proved that he was still one of the great cards in the game.

Roosters coach Trent Robinson finally injected him back into the heat of NRL action with 22 minutes left on his comeback game.

There was undoubted excitement for his comeback after seeing what he did in the game, but he was never going to have a long season in his comeback game.

He lasted just 14 minutes with seven 37-meter runs, six tackles and a volley of his first NRL hit, according to statistics from NRL.com.

But as excitement threatened to engulf the game, current Dally M medalist James Tedesco has delivered an absolute masterclass.

With his 26 runs for 227 meters, two line jumps and 15 tackle cuts to accompany his two attempts, Tedesco was outstanding.

“I know we have Sonny Bill back tonight, but while he was gone, James Tedesco could have emerged as the best player on the planet,” yelled Andrew Voss as Tedesco scored his second try of the night.

Tedesco did it all himself too, kicking off the falling detour only for him to rally and cross for the four-point.

“The whole conversation has been about Sonny Bill Williams and rightly so, but the number one man in the game has really stood his ground,” Cooper Cronk said in a comment.

Williams even praised Tedesco, comparing it favorably to the athletes he has seen around the world.

“(He) is up there,” Williams said on Fox League. “When it comes to Teddy, I didn’t know what to expect, obviously one of the best players in the world in recent years. Just his demeanor, the way he approaches the game, he’s kind of a chill guy, but I’ve had some conversations. very deep and interesting with him, much more than it seems with Teddy. “

With the interest surrounding Williams’ return, it was loud at the press conference and Robinson needed to calm the room when he arrived.

“Sonny has this aura around him off the field, I think that’s why the interest in the game,” he said. “I think a lot of people are interested in the game, New Zealand, Australia, England, France, it would have been all those countries that we wanted to go to in the game. He has this aura around him, this presence that is rare.

“But then inside the locker room we feel that but we feel that as a player, as a teammate, he’s a good guy, he’s a teammate and his thing is that there’s no separation between him and the other guys.”

Robinson agreed with a question about whether the media scrutiny was just water on a duck’s back.

It appears to be Robinson’s latest masterstroke to take the pressure off his back-to-back champions as they chase a third straight title.