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Sonny Bill focusses on Olympic dream

Dubai - The Rugby World Cup winner, who watched his sister Niall represent the country's women's team yesterday (Thursday), wants - like her - to try and cement a place in the NZ squad for next summer's Rio Olympics during this HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series.

 Sonny Bill Williams will be an interested onlooker when Gordon Tietjens' All Blacks Sevens side takes to the pitch at the Emirates Airline Dubai Rugby Sevens on Friday.
The Rugby World Cup winner, who watched his sister Niall represent the country's women's team yesterday (Thursday), wants - like her - to try and cement a place in the NZ squad for next summer's Rio Olympics during this HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series.
However, with this format markedly different from the XVs game, Williams is under no illusions as to the difficulty of the task at hand and the fast and frenetic action here this weekend should give him a fair impression of just what is required in order to make the grade - and cut - in it. "The dream is obviously to make it with the All Blacks at sevens, but also to make it to the Olympics as well. It's everyone's dream," the Waikato Chiefs centre, 30, said.
"Having said that, it's going to be a massive challenge for me to make not only the All Blacks side, but also the Olympics, and - if I do - to then try and win it is obviously another thing in itself. "There is a lot of hard work to go into it and there are a lot of boxes need to be ticked off beforehand."
On his watching brief here in the emirate, Williams added: "That's the reason I'm here. I want to get a feel for it and just seeing the type of athletes playing in all of the different teams is amazing. "I'm just having fun at the moment, but - when the men play tomorrow (Friday) - I'll be keeping a keen eye on all of the teams, not just New Zealand. "I'm simply trying to soak it all up, but - at the same time - I'll go away from here and work very hard."