New Zealand Rugby's efforts to have Sonny Bill Williams available for the first Bledisloe Cup test have fallen short with World Rugby finding the matches submitted by the national body to count towards his four‑week ban for a dangerous tackle did not make the grade.
World Rugby has found that Williams' ban would need to extend to include the opening Rugby Championship test against Australia.
Williams has already served two of the four matches of his ban after not playing in the third test against the Lions and also the Blues' shock defeat to the Sunwolves in the final round of the Super Rugby regular season.
Source: Stuff
