SBW to break silence on Dogs walk-out - Sports News - Fanatics - the world's biggest events

SBW to break silence on Dogs walk-out

By Philip Henderson and Belinda Tasker 06/08/2008 08:08:25 PM Comments (0)

Sonny Bill Williams has trained with French rugby club Toulon for the first time as the runaway Bulldogs star prepared to break his silence on his defection from the NRL club.

While his former teammates continued to deal with the aftermath of the Kiwi backrower's dramatic departure by vowing to bring back some much needed pride to the Bulldogs jersey, Williams himself was half a world away at his new footballing home.

The 23-year-old is expected to finally reveal his reasons for walking out on the Dogs in a pre-recorded interview to be broadcast on the Nine Network's rugby league Footy Show on Thursday night, with Williams' comments expected to be closely scrutinised by the legal team of the Bulldogs and NRL.

The Bulldogs have applied for an injunction against the New Zealand international playing in any competition except the NRL with proceedings to start in the NSW Supreme Court on Friday.

Williams had been laying low in Europe for more than a week after jetting out of Sydney.

But after officially putting pen to paper on a one-year deal with Toulon on Tuesday - with an option for a second season - he was straight into training with his new team with the possibility of making his club debut in a pre-season trial on Friday (Saturday AM AEST).

There had been suggestions Williams had been in contact with some of his former Bulldogs teammates in recent days, but close mate Reni Matuia and fullback Luke Patten both said they had not heard from the second rower.

Patten even delivered something of a parting shot at his former teammate, by questioning his longevity in football.

"I think maybe Sonny might not have that long in the game with the injuries he had. Maybe he thinks he does not have much longer in the game, and needs to get out of it what he can," Patten told reporters in Brisbane.

Matuia, meanwhile, insisted players had well and truly moved on from the Sonny Bill drama and after losing their last two games by a combined total of 86-4 had spoken only about bringing some pride back to the club in Saturday's bottom-of-the-table clash with North Queensland.

"It's getting to the point where it's getting quite embarrassing," said Maitua.

"We need to show plenty of heart this week and get some pride back in the jersey because at the moment we're just embarrassing ourselves and the club.

"You can come up with thousands of excuses about why we're going bad, but at the end of the day there's not one player that's going to stop us from getting 40 points put past us.

"Once we get behind on the scoreboard the heads are just going down at the moment and the excuses come out, so we've just spoken about getting rid of that and turning things around.

"We've been saying that every week, but we've got to do it now."

Thursday is shaping as yet another big day in league circles, with the future of troubled Canberra halfback Todd Carney likely to be decided after a meeting with the Raiders board.

The 22-year-old will plead for reinstatement to the playing roster after being suspended for the remainder of the season following an incident two weeks ago in which he allegedly urinated on the neck and head of another patron during a drinking session at a Canberra bar.

The suspension is one of five clauses handed down to him in an ultimatum by the club last week.

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