Wynne Gray: Welcome to the Sonny Bill Show

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What a circus. The will-he, won't-he Sonny Bill Williams big top graunched through another chapter this week as he chose to play his rugby in New Zealand.

Some in the media perpetuate this nonsense as they seem to bang on daily about the SBW phenomenon. It has got a feeling like the mid-90s when Lomumania burst into life. Lomu and Counties, Williams and Counties?

Strange that Williams would announce his decision in Australia on a league show.

Mind you his probable new boss before the year's end, Graham Henry, once announced in Auckland he was disappearing that night to coach the boyos in the valleys.

The TAB should suspend any thoughts of opening a book on Williams' chances of making the All Blacks' end-of-year tour to Europe - adidas have probably got his measurements already.

By all accounts Williams is a very pleasant young man who is clearly an extraordinarily talented sportsman.

Members of his entourage do not carry the same reputation and it will be fascinating to see their involvement, now that the New Zealand Rugby Union have snared Williams' signature.

You sniff some dramas between his manager, Khoder Nasser, who scarcely knew the name of any All Blacks during this saga, and a conservative rugby hierarchy.

Williams is an undoubted talent so big ups to Tana Umaga and the NZRU for making the deal happen.

They had to work extra hard.

Not so long ago, Williams apparently squared up financially with his boxing buddy Anthony Mundine, who had bailed him out of his troubles at Canterbury Bankstown.

That done and with his rugby career on the up at Toulon, Williams had the tasty incentive of a multimillion-dollar deal to set him up for life. A lifestyle in the south of France was cruisey, the job was not overly taxing and the moolah was superb. But Umaga was leaving. Williams' coaching security blanket was heading home, the Polynesian influence that resonated with Williams was in the exit queue.

Incoming coach Phillipe St Andre was well credentialled but did not have the same connection.

Meanwhile, Nasser, the shadowy figure who manages Williams, could not see the NZRU for the money trees in Toulon.

Nasser's knowledge of New Zealand rugby was minimal but he understood the dosh in Europe.

However Umaga, to a large extent, and the NZRU went to work on enticing Williams to play in New Zealand. It was a punt but well worth taking as they discovered this week.

You have to wonder if Williams' contract factored in work for someone as his permanent minder, because if the airwaves are any indication of the fervour his arrival will promote, he will need round-the-clock assistance.

Job, anyone?