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Cameron Spencer / Getty Images
Sonny Bill Williams unloads the ball to his Roosters teammate Angus Crichton (L) in their NRL semi-final loss to the Raiders.
Australian rugby league legend Peter Sterling has praised Sonny Bill Williams’ five-game return to the Roosters, but says he can’t see the kiwi star playing for the NRL next season.
“He won’t be in the NRL, I don’t see a full season there,” Sterling said in Nine’s Wide World of Sports.
SKY SPORTS
The Canberra Raiders’ fast start was enough to defeat the Roosters from Sonny Bill Williams.
Sterling, a multiple prime minister winner with Parramatta in the 1980s, said Williams was “fantastic” in the Roosters’ 22-18 semi-final loss to the Raiders on Friday night.
“It was a real success story this year.
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Cameron Spencer / Getty Images
Sonny Bill Williams in what may turn out to be his last NRL game for the Roosters.
“If you had said in the middle of the year that Sonny Bill Williams would be running in a semi-final, you would have said, ‘What are you talking about?’
“He came back and little by little he got back to a situation where he could play. I thought he was great tonight.”
Williams joined the Roosters, whom he helped win the NRL title in 2013, on loan from the Toronto Wolfpack after the Canadian club withdrew from the English Super League.
The 35-year-old former All Black said after the Raiders’ loss that he had no idea what the year would be doing.
Sterling said: “He will be successful in everything he does because he has the mindset and the willpower.”
Williams played 38 minutes off the Roosters’ trade bench and had three volleys, one of which helped set up a try for fullback James Tedesco.
Mark Kolbe / Getty Images
A signature dump at a tackle for Roosters star Sonny Bill Williams when the Raiders defenders stop their advance.
Roosters coach Trent Robinson was unsure about Williams’ immediate future, but sees that his team “needed him” against the Raiders.
“We needed a guy who, when there was pressure, would raise his hand,” Robinson said at the postgame news conference.
“And Sonny has done it his entire career in awkward situations.
“And he did it again tonight.”
Mark Metcalfe / Getty Images
Jake Friend (right) and Sonny Bill Williams returned to the Roosters’ side for the sudden death clash with the Raiders after missing the previous week through injury.
Williams appeared philosophical after the final whistle, saying Channel nine in an interview on the field of play that the loss was “tough”, but he was still happy to be playing.
“Obviously, we didn’t want the season to come to an end tonight, but as I told a couple of young people, that’s the way stories go sometimes, that’s how fairy tales end.”
Williams thought disappointment would inspire the Roosters, who had won the previous two titles, in 2021.
“It makes them hungry for next year.”
While Williams was disappointed that he didn’t get a chance at a third NRL title after his successes with the Bulldogs in 2004 and the Roosters seven years ago, he said he was a “glass half full” person and was “thankful continue being here, doing what I love. ”
