Court ruling sought to lasso 'Wild Bill'
Tue, 05 Aug 2008 09:45
Stade Felix-Mayol: New home of Sonny Bill Williams
The Australian club of runaway Rugby League star Sonny Bill Williams on Tuesday won permission to serve legal papers against the back row forward in its bid to prevent him playing in France.
Williams flew out of Australia on July 26 and has now switched codes and signed with French Rugby Union side Toulon, despite being one year into a five-year contract with the Canterbury Bulldogs, an Australian National Rugby League (NRL) team.
The New South Wales Supreme Court Tuesday approved the last-ditch effort by legal teams for the Bulldogs and the NRL to prevent 23-year-old Williams from taking the field for Toulon, AAP reported.
Justice Robert Austin said documents could be served to Williams' associates as substitutes, following failed attempts to serve the papers to the footballer directly last week, it reported.
The papers will explain that the court will on Friday hear an application for an injunction against Williams playing for Toulon later that day in France.
Williams' abrupt departure from Australia sent shockwaves through the NRL which has united with Canterbury to try to legally enforce the player's contract and prevent a feared mass exit of elite players to cash-flush European clubs.
A barrister for the Bulldogs, Arthur Moses, told the court Tuesday that the club would be seeking damages from the Toulon club and from Williams' manager, the Sydney Morning Herald reported on its website.
Toulon's president Mourad Boudjellal on Monday appeared untroubled by the threat of legal action.
"Our problem is: Is Williams under contract with another Rugby Union side? The answer is no. Therefore he's free to join with whoever he wants, he doesn't need a letter to leave," he told AFP.
News of the pending injunction on Williams' move to Toulon will be a setback to Boudjellal's plans to slot the player into the team as early as possible.
Boudjellal said on Monday that Williams "has confirmed his complete desire to finish with Rugby League to switch over to Union".
"He'll be at the very least in the stadium, or better on the team sheet, for Friday's friendly against Hyeres," he added.
Williams, who was in Toulon on Monday for the traditional medical, was described by the Toulon boss as "very serene, very determined to make his entry into rugby union".
"I can't see him going back to League," Boudjellal, who reckons his new signing could develop into an "extra-terrestrial" in Rugby Union, added.
"That seems to be a closed chapter in his career."
Not everyone in France is entirely happy with Williams' decision to jump ship from League with Serge Blanco, whose Ligue Nationale de Rugby controls the Top 14 and second division competitions in France, saying it was important players honoured their contracts before relocating to France.
"In my view, [Williams] should finish his season with his club in Australia and then come to France," Blanco told last Friday's Sydney Morning Herald from Paris.
"I find it funny and bizarre that a player would break his contract in the middle of the season to go somewhere else.
"There is a rule in the French competition that a player can finish his season in Australia and then come to France midway through the season."
And NRL chief executive David Gallop has sought direct intervention from European rugby authorities - as well as the Australian justice system - to force Williams to return to the NRL.
The International Rugby Board's head of communications Greg Thomas said the matter was the concern of the Federation Francaise de Rugby, and not the game's ruling body.
"At a basic level, we don't believe anybody should break their contract," Thomas told the newspaper.
"We have heard from David about this matter, but it is really something for the French authorities."
AFP
