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Toronto 10 Castleford 28• Williams plays 54 minutes in first game since 2014Rusty. Room for improvement. Cautious optimism. Sonny Bill Williams’s first game of rugby league for 1,956 days was, in many ways, symptomatic of his new side’s overall performance as their Super League debut ended in disappointment. Yet the whole occasion was perhaps best surmised by the man himself, who simply said afterwards: “The magic will come.”
Make no mistake about it, this will be a tough, backs-to-the-wall season for Williams and Toronto, despite their considerable riches and geographical advantages across the Atlantic. That was illustrated here, as Castleford put any hopes of a Wolfpack victory to bed before half-time. Leading 22-4 at the break, Williams’s only real involvement up to that point had been fairly sombre.