Rugby: Sonny Bill returns

Counties Manukau player Sonny Bill Williams at the NPC match held at ECO Light stadium in Pukekohe. Photo / Brett Phibbs

Counties Manukau are still alive in the Premiership semifinal hunt, Auckland have taken a big hit but live to fight another day, and Sonny Bill Williams blew out the cobwebs with 20 minutes off the bench.

In a muscular, committed display, the Steelers regained the Dan Bryant Memorial Trophy for the first time since 2008, when former Manu Samoa No 8 Tanner Vili's heroics helped sink their big brothers from up the motorway.

A crowd estimated at more than 8000 got into it and ramped up the atmosphere as the Steelers ran in six tries. Local TMO Glen Blackwell was called on at least four times, earning his corn.

Auckland did some hare-brained things, including turning down several kickable shots at goal and trying to pass the ball out of their own in-goal. They also lost No 8 Peter Saili and wing George Moala to what looked to be serious injuries. That helped push the final whistle out to after 9.30pm.

The Steelers were far more accurate than Auckland in most of what they did. The second half try to No 10 Ahsee Tuala, waltzing through some non-existent defence, summed up the respective sides on the night. Michael Stanley floated a nice, long cutout pass to Frank Halai, who crossed for his second. Sam Henwood, a former Auckland flanker, rubbed salt into the wounds with a try between the uprights in the final seconds.

The Steelers rang the changes, but the crowd were awaiting the entry of No 22. The game's most famous set of initials duly made his entry to appropriate fanfare at the 60-minuite mark. He did everything right with relatively limited opportunities and nearly engineered a try with a judicious grubber.

Auckland looked to spread the ball in the opening stanzas, prop Ofa Tu'ungafasi getting his hands on it several times. In turning down at least three kickable shots at goal, they were perhaps simply copying the All Blacks at Ellis Park last weekend. It paid off at first, though, when Tu'ungafasi plunged over for the opening try. The Steelers were not going to take that lying down, and started to show that some of their recent form was not a fluke. Their scrum muscled up again - Jarrod Firth put the heat on the tighthead side - and the likes of halfback and captain Augustine Pulu sniped and probed. Some of those passes started to stick. Then came their first stroke of luck. Referee Kane McBride binned Auckland halfback Junior Poluleuligaga for deliberately slapping the ball down from a scrum. That was justifiable. But he then adjudged, via the TMO, that a try would probably would have been scored, so ruled a penalty try. That was mystifying.

Pulu ran hard at a gap before finding Halai with a pinpoint pass for the try. At that moment, he looked every inch like the next All Blacks halfback.

The Steelers' defence had far more starch in it, exemplified by a textbook driving tackle by diminutive fullback Tim Nanai-Williams on Auckland No 8 Saili.

The presence of Williams galvanised the crowd, one wag constantly chanting his name soon after kickoff, when he was safely tucked up on the subs' bench!

However, the individual highlight of the night was Nanai-Williams' pass to Andy Muirhead, a behind the back special.

Auckland now face Northland on Saturday and the Steelers play Tasman in Blenheim on Sunday.

3 things SBW showed us

1. There was going to be no trademark offload on his first touch. He ran straight into the teeth of the Auckland defence (Simon Hickey!) at top speed.

2. His sense of timing (or theatre) has not deserted him, being the last one out of the tunnel for the warm-up.

3. He's still the best decoy in the business, the Steelers using him in that fashion from a set scrum move, but he did show his sidestep soon afterwards.

Counties Manukau (Frank Halai 2, Ahsee Tuala, Augustine Pulu, Sam Henwood tries, Penalty try; Tuala con, pen, Michael Stanley 2 con, Tim Nanai-Williams con)
Auckland (Ofa Tu'ungafasi, Jack Whetton tries; Gareth Anscombe con, 2 pen)
HT: 15-5 Counties Manukau.