By Dave Woods BBC Sport

Williams is set to stay in Australia

Saints apparently offered Williams, 19, a three-year deal which could have been worth over �300,000 a year.

But the forward has told his agents he wants to stay in Australia and has begun talks with his club Canterbury Bulldogs over extending his contract.

St Helens say the reports are an "overstatement" of their actual offer.

The Super League club are also angry that the details were leaked by Williams' agents - Chris and Gavin Orr of Pacific Sports Management.

But Orr insisted the information had not come from his company.

The Sydney Morning Herald reported that a letter sent to Williams' representatives by Saints chairman Eamonn McManus offered the player a three-year contract worth �175,000 a year, with �135,000 of that paid into an off-shore tax-free trust.

We are handing the matter over to our lawyers Saints chairman Eamonn McManus

Williams would also have picked up to �25,000 in match fees, plus a house, car, private health insurance and free flights back to Australia or New Zealand.

The club apparently also offered to help Williams arrange a personal sponsorship from a blue-chip company worth an extra �100,000 a year.

But McManus responded in a statement: "We did indeed have a number of conversations and exchanges of correspondence to make an indicative offer to Sonny through his Australian agent.

"We are appalled by the leaking of a strictly confidential indicative offer.

"The description of our indicative offer by the Herald is partly accurate, in that it has in part been leaked, but is a gross misrepresentation and overstatement of our offer.

"We are handing the matter over to our lawyers as we consider the unauthorised disclosure of any elements of our offer to be extremely damaging.

"At a minimum it must rank as the single most unprofessional act I have encountered in this sport and holds agents in a very bad light.

"We will be looking very carefully at all legal consequences and possible recourse.

"This is a clear case of an agent grossly abusing a confidential relationship in order to further their own ends regardless of damage to all concerned."