Family fortunes: Williams-Guthrie eyes history with SBW

Niall Williams-Guthrie (l) hopes to follow brother Sonny Bill Williams onto the NRL winners' roll. (Mark Evans/AAP PHOTOS)

Niall Williams-Guthrie finishes almost every NRLW match day listening to her brother Sonny Bill's voice blaring through her phone.

The NRL and All Blacks great goes into forensic detail of every aspect of the game: the good, the bad, the ugly and everything in between of every match of Williams-Guthrie's maiden NRLW season.

Born three years apart, the Williams siblings can create history on Sunday if Niall's Titans beat Newcastle to win the club's first premiership.

With the women's competition now in its sixth season, they would become the first brother-sister pair to both win titles in the NRL.

"How cool would that be?" Williams-Guthrie said on Tuesday.

"I went straight over to the family (after Sunday's semi-final win) and I asked was (Sonny Bill's 2004 premiership) his first year playing? They said, 'I think so'. 

"And I was like, 'Damn. I was trying to get one up on him'.

"I get voice messages from him after every game, the whole debrief - attack, defence, overall. 

"Full voice messages, five minutes long. And I'm like, 'Oh my gosh'."

Williams-Guthrie was there when Sonny Bill first shot to stardom in 2004, flying over for the grand final as his Canterbury side beat the Sydney Roosters.

"I was 16 or 17. I remember sitting in the stands watching him and I always remember him going, 'Woooohooooo'," she said.

"His voice sounded like a little kid. It was a cool moment for our family."

She was there again nine years later, this time with her own children when Sonny Bill returned to rugby league from the 15-man game and won a premiership with the Roosters.

"At the 2013 grand final, I was holding my daughter, she would have been one-and-a-half and I was pregnant with my second one," Williams-Guthrie said. 

"She has an 'SBW face' when he comes into the crowd. He comes out and gives us all a kiss."

On Sunday, Williams-Guthrie has the chance to create the family's next great sporting memory.

Her two children, who she has not seen in two-and-a-half months, will fly to Sydney for the game on tickets booked in advance in the hope of Gold Coast qualifying.

A cross-code star herself, she collected a silver medal in rugby sevens at the 2016 Olympics with New Zealand and gold at the 2018 Commonwealth Games.

At age 35, she has impressed in her first year in rugby league, but says there is plenty still to learn.

"Sometimes people talk to me like I’m a seasoned veteran because I’ve played sports for so long, but I’m pretty much nine or 10 games deep in my league career," she said. 

"I’m starting to get there and see things in my game in the bits where I can implement the things I bring to the team better. 

"You just keep asking questions of the coaches and players. 

"Every week I build a little bit more confidence that I know what I’m doing."

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