Sonny Bill Williams says there is plenty of work to do, but he’s pleased with the start he made in his return to rugby union.

Williams came on in the final quarter of Counties Manukau’s 41-18 national provincial championship win over Auckland in Pukekohe in New Zealand on Wednesday night.

His appearance attracted a big crowd, who saw him get off the bench with 20 minutes to go and with the Steelers well in command.

The dual international got a handful of touches, twice crashing the ball up and also producing a grubber than put his side in attacking field position.

Williams, who played his last NRL game with the Sydney Roosters just 12 days earlier, came away pleased with his first rugby union match in two years.

“It was just about going on and doing my role and I feel like I did that to the best of my ability,” he said.

“It’s about getting the feel for the game. The thing that was pleasing about tonight was that it came instinctively.”

Williams said the match had a different feeling from his first foray into the 15 man code in 2008, when he quit the Canterbury Bulldogs to join French club Toulon.

“There’s a lot of hard work, but it was a good start,” he said.

However, the 29-year-old also said the most important thing was that the Steelers got the win that keeps them in play-off contention heading into their last round match against confirmed semi-finalists Tasman on Sunday.

“When you think of the big picture of what you want to achieve individually, that always takes a back seat to what you’re trying to achieve as a team,” he said.

“The boys played really well tonight. I’m just happy we got the win. Hopefully we’ve got one more win this week and we can be in the finals.”