Tom May warns England of Sonny Bill Williams threat
Former England international Tom May believes that All Black Sonny Bill Williams must be stopped if England are to win their opening Test match of the Autumn Internationals on Saturday, 6 November at Twickenham.
May played on the same team as the 6ft 4in, 17 stone New Zealander while at French club Toulon, and he feels that the centre could be influential in the match.
The former English player told BBC Sport that the All Black could have the same type of impact that former New Zealand wing Jonah Lomu did when he first burst onto the scene.
"Sonny's got more to his game than Jonah Lomu," said May.
"His size is his obvious strength, but his offloading ability is unbelievable. He'll be looking forward to Saturday," added the former international.
May feels that Williams offers a lot more than Lomu in terms of his overall game and the skills he picked up at his time in rugby league.
"Because he's spent a lot of time playing league he's developed some decent skills and it was only a matter of time before he started playing for the All Blacks."
The former English player also warned England of Williams’ unique style.
"He can hold the ball in one hand, which I haven't seen many people able to do, and it enables him to run at full pelt, break tackles and offload so accurately and it makes him hard to stop as a defender."
Shontayne Hape and Mike Tindall will have the job of confronting Williams and May believes England coach Martin Johnson picked the two big centres to deal with the New Zealander’s physical presence.
"If you go high, you stand the risk of being bumped off, whereas if you go low, the risk as a defender is he's able to offload, so it's going to be difficult for England," said May.
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