Mason gets pulled from SBW debut

Counties Manukau Steelers player Sonny Bill Williams in action during the match against Auckland. Photo / Brett Phibbs

League star Willie Mason was banned from making a media appearance at Sonny Bill Williams' debut ITM Cup match for Counties Manukau in Pukekohe last night.

Mason was scheduled to appear in a television interview at the game to comment on the performance of his friend and former Canterbury Bulldogs teammate before Steelers management vetoed the deal.

The 34-year-old veteran prop, in Auckland on a promotional visit for today's ticket sale launch for the 2015 NRL Auckland Nines, believes Counties Manukau were worried his appearance would take the gloss off Williams' first game back in the 15-man code but admitted to not knowing which ITM Cup side his mate had joined.

The Steelers could not be reached for comment yesterday.

"They banned me from the game which is a shame," Mason said. "All everyone's talking about is the Nines and with Sonny playing tonight I don't think they wanted to take the gloss off him coming back for the ... I don't even know who he's playing for, I actually don't.

"It would have been good to go, I was looking forward to watching him play his first game [but it's] not up to me.

"I don't know who the boss is there but they pulled the pin. It's weird."

The former Kangaroos and NSW State of Origin star has enjoyed squaring off against Williams over the past two years after the World Cup-winning All Black returned to league in 2013 following his initial five-year stint in rugby.

Williams was suspended for two NRL matches that season while playing for the Sydney Roosters, after hitting Mason with a brutal shoulder charge during a fiery NRL encounter against the Newcastle Knights, but there are no hard feelings between the pair.

"We go hard on the field and then off the field we just cruise around," Mason said. "He does his own thing, I do my own thing.

"It was great to see him come back to league and prove everybody wrong and obviously coming back to union to win another World Cup which is great for him.

"People have got to start respecting him more as an athlete. He's a boxer, union, league, what he's done in the last three years is phenomenal.

"At the end of the day they'll look at him as one of the greats in probably both codes."