One day someone will write an authorised biography on SBW ... and it's going to be a grotesque piece of puffery. But Williams and his manager Khoder Nasser will be happy - and that's the main thing.
Williams arrived on New Zealand's 15-man scene with a crash, bang and offload to die for. He seemed to scale a steep learning curve with ridiculous ease. There was nothing it seemed, aside from a left-foot drop kick from 50m, that Williams could not do on a footy field.
He was selected for the All Blacks 2010 end-of-year Northern Hemisphere tour and impressed to the point where it was felt he had edged ahead of Ma'a Nonu in the pecking order following a luminous display against the flowers of Scotland. That remains the apogee of Williams' international career.
After a strong start to the Super 15 season, Williams' form tailed off at the same time he took on a heavy boxing training load. It is this dogged pursuit of his own interests that has alienated some fans and, truth be told, some teammates.
What no one will begrudge is that his grab-bag of skills are almost unique in the code. There seems to be no tackler able to prevent him offloading.
