Australian league has long been worried about the future of their code as star after star deserts the three-nation game for the lures and riches of European or Japanese or even Australian Rugby Union.

So when there is the faintest hint of a big name returning to the nest, the league world not surprisingly goes into meltdown.

But their latest half-baked click-bait has stretched credulity even further.

The “rumour” surfaced on Monday, that Sonny Bill Williams was planning to ditch the Blues and the All Blacks to return to the Sydney Roosters in the NRL.

This extremely long-bow was supposedly given credibility by former player Jimmy Smith on Sydney radio because he once played for the same club – about ten years before SBW (but what’s a decade or two in the rumour mill.)

According to Foxsports Australia, who not surprisingly own the rights to the NRL and would benefit greatly from SBW’s return, Smith claimed the Roosters and Williams had agreed to a deal which would see him back in Australia in August at the completion of the Super Rugby season.

That would mean Williams would give up an end of season tour with the All Blacks, including a virtual world championship against England at Twickenham, to play a few matches with a league club in Sydney’s eastern suburbs.

SBW, a committed Muslim, took to Twitter himself to scotch the rumour.

“I love being apart of the (Auckland Blues) & (All Blacks). God willing I’m apart of another successful World Cup campaign next year in 2019!” he wrote.

Pretty categorical but not for the Sydney league media who deemed the tweet “somewhat cryptic” because he wrote “apart” not “a part”.

Williams then went further by confirming via text to senior News Corp reporter Phil Rothfield the rumours were false and Roosters chairman Nick Politis even spoke out denying the story.

But no doubt the hope-filled rumours will persist.